


Not Your Choice to Make

by artimus13



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending, Headaches & Migraines, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Memory Alteration, Mystery, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, So many headaches, Someone help Akira, Unreliable Narrator, minor amounts of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27554749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artimus13/pseuds/artimus13
Summary: “Do you ever think about our current situation Akechi?”“Which situation do you mean? We seem to be in quite a few right now so you’ll need to be a tad more specific.”“I mean the whole fake reality thing,” Akira decided to elaborate, “Like how far do you think Maruki can bend reality to his will, and why do you think he wants only my permission to do it?”orWhat if Akechi got to decide to take the final deal of the game but with a few more things to consider.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Sakura Futaba/ Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi (implied)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 110





	1. Let’s make a dea- compromise

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't tagged for violence just because the violence section is kind of short and not very descriptive, but if you're not good with blood and stabbing and stuff like that, now is your chance to bow out.

“Do you ever think about our current situation Akechi?”

“Which situation do you mean? We seem to be in quite a few right now, so you’ll need to be a tad more specific.”

Akechi thought Akira’s question was a bit idiotic in the first place because of course Akechi was going to think about any of the situations that they were in because they were always all so abnormal. He knew Akira was only attempting to make small talk as they were about to go into Maruki’s palace, but honestly couldn’t Akira have come up with a better and more specific question? He wasn’t a friend to half of Shibuya only after less than a year of living there for nothing. 

“I mean the whole fake reality thing,” Akira decided to elaborate, “Like how far do you think Maruki can bend reality to his will, and why do you think he wants only my permission to do it?”

Akechi didn’t know the answer to those questions, and he would bet good money that even Maruki himself didn’t know the full extent of his powers, but he mind as well share his working theories with Akira for the sake of showing trust or whatever Akira was trying to build between the two of them. He also reasoned out that the more ideas and possible answers they had, the better their chances of defeating Maruki were.

“I suspect that Maruki doesn’t know the full extent of his own powers, so we shouldn’t have to worry about him using his own system for his benefit right now, however if you really want my take on their extent, I believe that he could do almost anything he wishes. We’ve already seen him bring the dead back to life, so who’s to say that he can’t create a shell of a person who already has existed or never existed in the first place.”

Akira seemed to be nodding along to what Akechi was saying so far, so he decided to continue onto the second question that Akira had asked. 

“My theory about why he wants your confirmation about distorting all of reality is that you helped him get to this situation in the first place. You aided him with his research in cognitive psience. What does strike me as odd is that he claims he wants both of us to be happy with the arrangement, but he doesn’t seem to give a damn care when it comes to what I say about his missguided reality.”

It made no sense. The delusional doctor always said it like he cared about both of them accepting reality, but when Goro vehemently denied it, Maruki turned to Akira like he was the only person in the room.

“I can see what you mean there,” Akira decided to voice his opinion, “He’s constantly saying he cares about both of our opinions, but he’s still willing to force his reality on us.”

“We should be happy that he’s too caring to not do that right away and that he still wants us to accept what he is offering us, but he already knows that I’m firm in my resolve and won’t be swayed by whatever filth about salvation comes out of his mouth.” 

“Yeah, I am too.” Akira agreed with a firm nod as they activated the Metaverse app and went into the palace to try and get Sumire and their reality back. 

***

Akechi should have expected this. 

He should have seen the ambush coming and been able to prevent it, but he was still trying to get his head around this whole false reality and why he was in it. He shouldn’t have relied on Akira to have his mind focused on stopping Maruki and getting Yoshizawa back when all of his friends were caught in this illusion that Maruki called reality.

Now, they were surrounded by two Nebiros and two Bugs, and he was mentaly cursing himself for not being able to use Robin Hood and his bless attacks anymore. The enemies had the advantage and both himself and Akira were already dwindling on health. 

Akira looked to be off balance too, but Akechi didn’t know if it was from the sudden attack from behind or his low health, and Akechi was sure that he wasn’t fairing much better than Akira.

He should have seen the Brain Shake that the Nebiros was preparing to cast in his direction, but of course the thing landed a direct hit on him. The problem wasn’t the damage that the hit did, but it was a problem that he was now brainwashed and being controlled by the enemy. 

‘ _ Not too different from our current situation in reality. _ ’ he briefly thought to himself before he couldn’t stop his body from turning on the one person helping him try and get rid of this disaster of a reality. 

By the time the full force of the brainwashing had taken him over, he only distantly, in the back corners of his mind, registered the expression of fear and pain on Akira’s face as he plunged his saber right into the middle of Akira’s abdomen. 

He couldn’t think. His mind was completely blank as he tore his blade through Akira’s skin. He continued to drive the blade deeper into Akira until the other boy finally fell to the ground and off of Goro’s sword. 

The enemies must have thought it was enough because they decided to retreat and leave Akechi with Akira in a growing pool of his own blood.

Akechi was confused from having the brainwashed effect leave him, but he very quickly smelled the rusty smell of blood filling the air, and he saw the boy that was crumpled at his feet and losing blood too quickly. 

“Joker!” he said quickly dropping down to his knees to examine the other boy and try to stop the intense bleeding while also trying to find any revival or healing items that Akira might have had on him.

Nothing.

There was nothing to use to try and stop Akira from bleeding out on the floor in front of him, and Akira didn’t have any healing items on him either because they had used them earlier during the infiltration after taking some heavy hits from some Chimeras.

His last resort was to try and summon Robin Hood who could use Samarecarm to revive Akira.

Akechi tries to remember his childhood justice. The happy feeling he would get when his mom encouraged him to fight evil doers and take down the bad guys. He tries to remember the tight mask that we would wear when he was the Detective Prince and how he held such lofty ideas of justice that he would always claim to do anything for.

Nothing. 

He could only feel the skin tight, suffocating feeling of Loki and his black mask attire. He could only feel the suffocation of the knowledge that he was going to be the cause of Akira’s death. 

He had wasted so many precious seconds trying to find a solution to the problem that was laying right in front of him, but he could come up with nothing. Akechi feels utterly useless as the one person he felt understood him and cared about him in this miserable world struggled more and more to take a breath.

“Akira?” he said dropping the code names, “Akira, can you hear me?”

The closest thing he got to an answer was a small movement of a head and a pained grunt.

“I’m going to do what you did for me back in that wretched engine room,” Akechi took in a breath before continuing his thought.

“Let’s make another promise since we’re already breaking the other one.”

Akira didn’t respond. Akira couldn’t respond.

“I’m going to make sure we get back to our true reality...one way or another.”

That was his promise to Akira as he felt the other go limp in his arms, but as Akira died, he had a small smile of hope on his face. 

“I am truly sorry that this happened to him,” a loud and familiar voice came over the speakers of the palace. 

Takuto Maruki was the last person Akechi wanted to hear right now. 

“I’m still waiting in the auditorium if you would like to come and discuss the state of reality. Perhaps now you will come to see my point of view now that you’ve lost another person that was very close to you.”

Akechi wasn’t listening to whatever that bastard was saying. He was too focused on moving Akira’s body to a safe room. He didn’t deserve to lie dead on the floor of the misguided man’s mind that had killed him.

‘ _ Maruki didn’t kill him. You did. _ ’

He didn’t have time to think about those thoughts right now. His sole focus had to be moving Akira to a safe room and then confronting Maruki.

They reached a safe room by the auditorium. They were so close to their goal weren’t they? If only Akira could hav-

No, Akechi didn’t have the time for fantasies right now. 

He gently set Akira down on the table in the safe room, and Akechi made one more promise to Akira before he left him behind.

“This is the best I can do, but I will make sure that we get our reality back from that delusional madman. I’m sor-. Don’t worry Akira, we won’t fail.”

He knew it was pointless telling this all to a corpse, but Akechi couldn’t care less as he strode out of the room that he left the body of Akira Kurusu in. He moved towards the promise that he said he would fulfill for the other. 

As he went towards the auditorium that Maruki claimed to be in, he allowed himself to think about how Akira would have handled this situation if it had been Akechi who had died, but he supposed they would have figured that out eventually if only Akira had lived longer. 

How cruel this world Maruki created was. He claims to have salvation and happiness for all, yet he brings Akechi back from the dead and takes Akechi out of jail when he was trying to do something right for the first time in his life. How terrible to bring Akechi back just to take Akira’s life in return. 

He let those thoughts fuel his motivation as he set foot into the auditorium and saw Maruki standing there with a blinding white spot light illuminating his presence, and it almost made him look like the false god he was. 

“I’m happy you decided to come Akechi-kun. I assume you’re now more willing to discuss accepting my deal.”

Akechi continues to walk towards the man that was speaking to him, and he also took a moment to look around, and he saw that Yoshizawa was nowhere to be seen, but she was the least of his concerns right now. 

“You must be experiencing a great deal of grief right now. You and Kurusu-kun were quite close.”

“Don’t try and pretend you know what I’m experiencing,” Akechi spat out. 

“I won’t pretend to know what you're going through, but understand that I can take away whatever you may be feeling. You would be able to bring Kurusu-kun back if you accept my offer.”

Akechi’s breath briefly caught in his throat, but he didn’t let his momentary slip up show in front of Maruki. He had to play his cards very close to his chest in order for this to work. 

“So now it’s my offer to take? After you just toss Akira away like a side thought, I now get to decide the fate of reality. You’ll regret thinking so little of him.”

“I thought the world of Kurusu-kun, and I still do. He is the sole reason that I was able to make this reality now.”

Well, that answers one of the questions that Akira had asked earlier while he was still alive. Akira would have gotten to make the decision because he got Maruki to this point. 

“Why turn to me now? Why not just force your plastic reality upon the world?” 

Maruki had a soft, solemn smile on his face when he answered Akechi. 

“Because the situation has changed, and I think you’re more likely to hear me out now.”

Akechi only scoffs at the man before Maruki decides to continue. 

“Everyone will be happy in the new world that I created! You would never have to remember how much you were forced to suffer under your father. You wouldn’t have to remember how you took Akira’s life away from him. You could both live a happy life together without pain and tragedy.”

He lets his anger fuel him to focus on Maruki’s last point and not the two before it. He uses all of his self control to keep himself in place and not raise his gun to Maruki’s head and pull the trigger. 

“And me and Akira would live happily together as what? Your puppets to play pretend with? Two corpses blissfully ignorant that we were ever dead to begin with?”

He sees Maruki vissibly recoil at what he had just said; he continued on.

“Yes, of course I’ve known I was dead from the beginning. Blissful ignorance doesn’t blind everyone, just those who are weak enough to fall for it.”

Maruki didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. He stood there looking at him like Akechi was forced to endure pain when others were able to look the other way and pretend nothing was wrong in this world of pretend. Maruki seemed to have given up on replying to Akechi, and he simply went back to his earlier statement about taking his deal.

“You still seem reluctant to accept this reality Akechi-kun, but I’ll ask you just like I would have asked Kurusu-kun. Will you accept this reality?”

Time for Akechi to fulfil his promise to Akira. 

“Yes, I’ll accept your reality.”

“W-what?” Maruki looked baffled by what he had just heard come from Akechi’s mouth.

“However, I have a condition that will be met…I want no part of your reality.”

“Y-you wish to still remain dead in my new reality even though I could give you a second chance at life with Kurusu-kun?”

“You heard what I said, and I stand by it. I wish to remain dead in this false reality that you make, but I want Akira to live and be alive.”

“Are these your only terms Akechi-kun? Are you sure you wish to be dead while all of your friends would be alive and happy?” Maruki looked at him with a skeptical look, and Akechi darkly chuckled to himself beneath his helmet.

“You said you grant people’s wishes right? Then what if my wish is to be dead in your reality, would that make you feel better about this compromise that we’re making?” 

“I...I suppose so. I accept your terms, and just to make sure, you will accept my reality, correct?”

“Not like I’ll be around to see it, but yes. I do accept your reality.” Akechi states again just to get it through the bastard’s skull that he was actually going through with no strings attached. 

Well, none that Maruki knew of anyway. 

“Then I’ll begin the process of overwriting the old reality and your existence. Thank you Akechi-kun for helping everyone towards happiness.”

That was the last thing that Akechi heard before his world (soon to be lack of a world) went black all around him, and he had only one thought in his mind.

‘ _ Now it’s your turn Akira. _ ’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:3C
> 
> me: this is so OOC for Goro  
> brain: but it's interesting !!  
> me: understandable, thanks for your logic
> 
> Thanks for reading and if you care about when this will update I plan on about once a week, but you know life hits sometimes.
> 
> Also I do swear all of this will make sense but we may or may not take a bit to get there!


	2. Living out the Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey kid, do you plan on waking up before noon today?”
> 
> Akira’s head felt groggy and slow, but he had just woke up to Sojiro telling him to wake up, so he didn’t think it was that odd. He had apparently slept till noon which was a rare thing for him since he tended to be a very light sleeper thanks to so many dream visits to the Velv-. Well actually, he couldn’t really remember where, but he was sure it didn’t matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIVE! 
> 
> I’m very sorry to people who have been looking for this update, but Shuake week hit me, and I just wrote it all and then took a break, but we’re here now!

“Hey kid, do you plan on waking up before noon today?”

Akira’s head felt groggy and slow, but he had just woke up to Sojiro telling him to wake up, so he didn’t think it was that odd. He had apparently slept till noon which was a rare thing for him since he tended to be a very light sleeper thanks to so many dream visits to the Velv-. Well actually, he couldn’t really remember where, but he was sure it didn’t matter.

Akira went to get up and go tell Sojiro that he was in fact up after having slept for such a long time, but as he sat up, he felt a stabbing pain in the center of his stomach. Today was not going to be a good day was it? He had a pounding headache, and he had apparently slept on something sharp, but as Akira felt around his bed for the object in question, he found that the object did not exist. He again tossed this away as something that didn’t matter. 

He also felt lighter and happier for some reason which seemed very odd considering that he felt like he would rather crawl back into his bed and continue his prolonged sleep than get up.

“Everyone's gonna be over soon kid, so you might wanna hurry up so they don’t see you with bed head in your pajamas.”

Akira heard Sojiro call to him again, and Akira carefully made his way down the stairs to an empty LeBlanc (minus Sojiro of course). 

“Geez, you better be grateful we didn’t have anyone in here.”

“Sorry?”

Sojiro gave him a concerned look before he spoke up again.

“Are you doing okay? Should we tell your friends not to come over and reschedule for another day?”

Akira was confused; he didn’t remember calling everyone over for any occasion, but he wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to see all his friends, after all, they were all so busy nowadays they rarely got a chance to just hang out.

“No it’s fine. I’m excited to see all of them; feels like it’s been forever since we’ve all gotten together.”

They all seemed to be pursuing their own interests now, and the only person from the group he saw on a regular basis was Futaba. Since Sojiro had officially allowed him to take permanent residence above LeBlanc, he saw Futaba and her mother quite regularly since they stopped by a lot to see himself and Sojiro.

“What time is it now?” Akira still wasn’t quite sure what time it was or when his friends were coming over.

“Just a little after noon, and they should all be here at about half past noon, so if you hurry, you can make yourself look presentable.”

Akira gave a quick thanks to Sojiro as he went back up stairs to lightly style his hair into its usual controlled mess, and he also threw on a pair of jeans and a grey sweatshirt. He also grabbed his glasses that he had forgotten to put on when he went down stairs the first time.

He heard the bell above LeBlanc’s entrance go off as he was heading downstairs, and he was pleased to see all of his friends walking in together.

“Yo boss! How’s business been for ya?” Ryuji asked once all of them had entered the building. 

“Same as always. We get a spike of customers and then we run out of curry, so we have to close up for the day.” 

“Ryuji!” Futaba started up as she lightly slapped Ryuji on the arm, “It’s rude to remind Sojiro that he needs to up his business game. He’s happy where he is now!”

Akira decided that this was a good moment to hop into the conversation, “It’s good to see you all again,” he said with a smile painted onto his face.

He was met with agreement from all of his friends that it had been too long since they had all met up and that they were all so happy that they could all go to the arcade for the day, but Akira noticed that one of them was missing…

“Where’s Goro?”

His response was a bunch of confused looks directed towards him.

“Senpai,” Su-Kasumi asked with the same confused expression on her face that all of his friends shared, “Who is Goro?”

Akira was about to respond before he realized that he didn’t actually know who he was talking about, but he could swear that Goro (whoever they were) was important to the group and to him.

“Um...yeah sorry I don’t actually know who they are. Guess I’m just feeling a bit off today.”

Ryuji came up to him and gave him a friendly slap on the back, “Don’t worry dude, we’ve all got our off days, but come on, let’s go and kick some ass in Gun About!”

Akira was grateful that his odd comment hadn’t taken the fun out of the day, but his comment had made him think to himself while all of them were walking to the arcade on Central Street.

Who was Goro? Akira couldn’t think of anything when he thought of the person besides their name, and he couldn’t even think of their last name. Thinking about it all only added to his already bad headache when he thought about it too much. He tried to forget about it, but it was still a prevalent thought in the back of his mind as they reached the arcade, and Ryuji dragged him over to the Gun About machine. 

They got through the first rounds with ease, but as the later rounds came, they got more serious, and they also got a little more competitive too.

_ This feels a bit nostalgic to me. I had a toy gun like this when I was younger. This all reminds me of when I would run around and play hero. _

_ You wanted to be a hero? _

Akira stopped playing the game. He was too taken aback at the sudden memory (?) that had suddenly resuscitated in his mind. His headache was staring to get stronger too, along with that stabbing feeling coming back in his stomach. He felt like he might faint…

“Dude what the eff! We were so close to winning! Why’d ya just stop all of a sudden?!”

Ryuji dragged him back to reality with his yelling about how Akria had made them both lose.

“S-sorry, I...zoned out.”

“Yeah, and it looks like you’re still doin it. You feelin okay man?”

That was the second time that some had asked Akira that, and it made him think that maybe his happinesses when he woke up was a false feeling. 

“Just give me a moment. I’m going to step outside and get some fresh air.”

“Sure, just make sure you’re ready for round two!”

With a small nod, Akira stepped out of the arcade, and he went to the small back alley where the Untouchable store was. 

What the hell had happened back in the arcade? 

That was probably a good place to start thinking about. Who did he hear talking? The last voice he heard in his head was clearly his, but who did the other voice belong to. His head was pounding and telling him to stop thinking about it, but Akira ignored it as he forced himself to think through the pain. 

If he focused hard enough through the pain, he could see a person dressed in a dress shirt and tie. They seemed to be holding a Gun About controller, but he couldn’t get much more than that without the pain being too unbearable. He took a few steadying breaths before he texted the group chat that he was going back to LeBlanc for the day. He couldn’t take the loud noises of the arcade with the state that he was in right now. 

He trudged back to LeBlanc at a slow pace, having to stop every now and then to take deep breaths and make sure he didn’t fall over from his headache, but once he arrived back, he saw that Sojiro was gone, so he headed right back up to the attic after grabbing a glass of water.

Akira opened the small window in the attic, and he sat on his bed, but he didn’t last long before he fell asleep again, or he might have passed out. He wasn’t really too sure, but he didn’t really care. He was just happy that his headache decided to completely go away.

He was hit with some sort of deja vu when he again woke up the next morning to Sojiro calling up to him again. 

“Akira I swear! You better not make a habit of waking up at noon. Get up, he’s coming over today, and I doubt you would want to disappoint him. You’ve both been looking forward to today after all.”

Who was coming over? They must be someone important, but as much as Akira tried to remember who he was going out with, he couldn't think of a name or a face, and that made him feel a bit bad since this person seemed to be important to him based on what Sojiro had said. 

He didn’t bother responding to Sojiro, and he quickly got ready, but he thought it was odd to find that he had somehow fallen asleep in jeans. He took off his current pair of jeans to replace them with a new pair, and he also put on a white tee shirt with a black pull over. He grabbed his glasses before he walked downstairs. 

“Hey, Boss?”

“Akira, I told you that you don’t have to call me that anymore. Just Sojiro is fine.”

Akira shook off the comment. He had a question to ask.

“Who’s coming over?”

Sojiro had a shocked look on his face before he looked like he was about to lecture Akira, but a person entered LeBlanc before he could start with the lecture. 

The person who had stopped Sojiro’s almost lecture was a boy that looked about his age, but he was probably a bit older. He was dressed in a dress coat with a balck and white striped tie, and he also had light chestnut brown hair paired with dark red eyes. The boy was also carrying what seemed to be a bouquet of flowers of differing variety. 

Sojiro turned to the boy before talking to him.

“Hey Akechi, you want to tell Akira just who you are again?”

The boy, apparently named Akechi according to Sojiro, turned to Akria with a pleasant smile on his face. 

“Aw come on darling,” Akechi started talking, but he cut himself off with a small laugh, “I don’t think it’s very proper to pretend to forget who I am on our first anniversary.” 

Akira went wide eyed as he looked at the boy who had just said that they had both been dating for one whole year without Akira remembering any of it.

He was either the worst boyfriend in the world, or something was very wrong. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens >:3c
> 
> I feel like I’ll have to out this here every time, but I swear there is a plot to this, and it will (hopefully) make sense eventually!


	3. Special Revision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They had been dating for a whole year, and today, was in fact their first anniversary. Akira had run into Akechi while he was walking around Station Square, and they had both caught each other's attention, so they had traded numbers. After what had seemed like the workings of fate, he received a text from the other asking whether or not Akira would be willing to go on a date with him. The rest was history. They have had a strong relationship for the last year with taking each other on numerous dates, and there wasn’t a single ounce of negative feelings to be found anywhere in their relationship. 
> 
> How could Akira have forgotten all of that?

Akira was still staring at Akechi, and Akechi looked completely unfazed by the fact that Akira had no knowledge of who he was after they had apparently been dating for one whole year. Akria wasn’t sure if he should or should not feel guilty about not remembering him.

He took a deep breath to try and collect his thoughts about who Akechi was and how they had met, and that was when Akira remembered it all.

They had been dating for a whole year, and today, was in fact their first anniversary. Akira had run into Akechi while he was walking around Station Square, and they had both caught each other's attention, so they had traded numbers. After what had seemed like the workings of fate, he received a text from the other asking whether or not Akira would be willing to go on a date with him. The rest was history. They have had a strong relationship for the last year with taking each other on numerous dates, and there wasn’t a single ounce of negative feelings to be found anywhere in their relationship. 

How could Akira have forgotten all of that?

Nothing was wrong. Sure, the in between of the start of his relationship with Akechi and now was fuzzy, but Akira was sure he would remember it, after all, the time he spent with Akechi was the happiest he has ever felt in his life. Except for now. He felt like a huge jerk that he had totally forgotten about their anniversary.

When Akira had remembered his history with Akechi, the blush must have shown on his face from the embarrassment that he was feeling right now. However, Akechi didn’t seem to be disappointed in Akira.

“Seems like it was a good thing that I decided to plan out the whole day,” Akechi said with a bright smile on his face, “If you want to put these in water before we leave, you can, but we should probably get to the place I have planned.”

Sojiro spoke up, “I can put these in water, you two can go on and get out of here. You’ve both been so excited about this that I wouldn’t want to hold you both back any longer.” 

Akechi grabbed Akira’s hand without warning, and Akira’s blush only deepened in response. 

“Shall we get going then? I think that you will quite like what I have planned out.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be great.”

Akira tried to keep pace with Akechi, but it was difficult since he was walking with such excitement at a fast pace. Of course Akira was excited too, but he also wasn’t sure where they were going, so part of him was anxious to see what Akechi had planned. He mind as well try and get it out of Akechi where they were going.

“Hey, Akechi?” Akira tried to start up, but he was immediately stopped when Akechi turned his head towards Akira to interrupt him. 

“Akira, why are you calling me by my last name?” Akechi tilted his head in a confused manner, “You’ve been calling me by my first name since our second date. D-Did something change?”

Well in truth, Akira had also forgotten Akechi’s first name, and he had only known Akechi was named Akechi because Sojiro had addressed him by his name earlier. Akira felt embarrassed again, but Akechi had already known that his memory wasn’t the best today, so he figured there was no harm in asking Akechi what his first name was.

“Sorry, but I actually kind of forgot your first name.”

Akechi seemed to think this was endearing in some way because he gave a light laugh at Akira’s confusion.

“Oh, my first name is Goro, and I would appreciate it if you kept calling me by it.”

Akira froze in place after he heard that which also stopped the movement of Akec- Goro.

“Are you alright? Are you not feeling well?” Akira heard Goro ask him, but the other’s words seemed far away as a memory (?) came to surface in Akira’s mind.

He remembered his group of friends coming over, and they were all excited to go to wthe arcade, but something had seemed off to Akira. He had thought one of them was missing, but when he asked where that person (Goro as he was now remembering) was, he was met with a bunch of confused glances and claims that they had never known Goro. 

Akira could feel the beginnings of a headache starting to manifest in his head.

He had to ask Goro about this; surely he would have an answer to this.

“Um...Goro, when I asked my friends about you the other day, they said that they had no idea who you were, b-but why wouldn’t they know you?”

The concern and confusion must have been quite visible on Akira’s face because Goro came over to comfort him with a hug. It took Akira a couple seconds, but he returned the hug, and then he heard Goro start to speak. 

“We had to hide our relationship,”Goro stated simply like he was explaining to Akira that the sky was blue and grass was green.

“But why did we have to do that?” Akira was still dazed and foggy about all of the details about his and Goro’s relationship for the past year, but Goro seemed like he was more than happy to explain it.

“Well to put it simply, I used to be something of a minor celebrity, so that meant I couldn’t be in a relationship. It meant that we couldn’t tell anyone about us, so you have to hide it from your friends. You must have slipped up the other day and accidentally forgotten about that.”

Something about that explanation seemed off to Akira, and his festering headache grew more when he thought about how it didn’t make sense, but he was starting to remember what Goro had said. When they met, Goro was making TV appearances, and he was something like an idol, but he was actually a teen detective. Goro had been up front about it when they started dating, but Akira hadn’t minded. Akira was good at keeping secrets, so it wasn’t too difficult to not tell his friends that he was dating Goro. 

“I guess I did just mess up the other day. Sorry about that.”

Goro’s face had the same smile on it that had been on it the last few times that Akira had been confused and apologetic about forgetting something. 

Goro gave Akira a small kiss on his cheek before he forgave Akira and again grabbed his hand to continue bringing them to their destination. It took a train ride and a short walk, but they arrived at the place that Goro had decided to take them to.

“An aquarium?” 

“Sorry, is it too cheesy to take you back to the place that we had our first date at?”

Akira did actually remember their first date here. Goro had gotten tickets here from a co worker, and he decided that it would be a good place to take Akira, but they had gotten interrupted by a reporter whose name he couldn’t remember. 

“I don’t think it’s cheesy at all,” Akira answered Goro who had a small look of panic on his face that he had somehow ruined their day just because of the location that he had chosen, “I’m actually a bit excited that we get a round two here since we got interrupted last time.”

Now it was Goro’s turn to look confused.

“We didn’t get interrupted on our first date. It was quite peaceful in the aquarium that day, and it was quite a relief that it wasn’t more busy since it’s normally a popular date spot,” Goro seemed very sure that he was remembering their first date correctly. 

Akira returned Goro’s confusion. Out of all of the things that he was able to remember about his time with Goro, this was the fact that he was the most confident was correct, but his headache seemed to get stronger the more he thought about, so maybe he was wrong?

“Are you sure? Didn’t we get stopped by a reporter?”

Goro’s face still seemed to be confused before it quickly changed into an expression of realization.

“Ah, you are right. We did get stopped by a reporter, and it was quite irritating that we had to pretend to not be on date even though it was our first one,” Goro now had a small smile on his face now that he had remembered all of the events of their first outing together, “She was quite persistent with her questions, but we somehow managed to slip away from her. Am I remembering correctly now?”

Akira tried to think through what had happened on their first date again, but if he thought about it too long, his headache would get worse, so he decided to say that Goro was right.

“Well then,” Goro’s bright smile returned to his face, “shall we go inside now?”

Akira took Goro’s hand this time, “Yeah, let’s head inside.”

Goro bought their tickets to go inside, and once they entered, they and everything around them radiated a hue of blue from the water that was all around them. Goro decided to take the lead, and he led them to the first water and fish filled wall. 

Akira wasn’t the type to read the plaques that were posted by each fish tank, but Goro found it interesting, so each time they came to a new set of fish, Goro would read the whole plaque of information and tell Akira about his findings. Akira didn't really listen to what Goro was saying; he was too busy taking in how beautiful Goro looked surrounded by all of the blue lighting. In Akira’s opinion, he looked too beautiful to be a real person. 

They made their way through the aquarium, and it wasn’t that filled with people which made sense since it was a Sunday in the middle of winter. When they reached the end of the aquarium, there was a small souvenir shop, but what caught Akira’s attention was the cheesy picture that the aquarium had set up where you could stick your face into a hole and take a memorable souvenir picture. He tugged lightly on Goro’s arm to get his attention while he pointed towards the cutout. Akria had a big goofy smile on his face when he had gotten Goro’s attention. 

“Do you wanna take a picture there? You know to remember today by.”

Goro gave a small laugh, “I would love to, but which one do you want to put your head into?” 

“I’ll take the Starfish.”

“Alright, I’ll take the Zebra Jellyfish then, but one more problem. We don’t have anyone to take our picture.”

As if on cue, a man wearing a brown cap and glasses came up to them. Akira was upset that his headache decided to return full force when the man had approached. He managed to not outwardly react to the pain in his head when he heard the man talk in a gentle voice. 

“Would you like me to take that for you? I don’t mind one bit.”

Akira looked at Goro briefly to make sure that Goro was okay with this stranger taking their picture, but Akira didn’t get a chance to formally ask him because Goro was already answering the man. 

“That would be lovely! Thanks for your kindness, sir.”

Akira gave the man a nod of appreciation before he and Goro made their way to their selected cutouts. 

“Smile on three. Ready? One...two...three!”

Akira tried his best to smile through his headache, and he’s pretty sure he managed to do a good job because the man seemed to be satisfied with the picture that he had taken of the two of them.

Both he and Goro returned to the man to see the photo, and Akira thought that he and Goro both looked genuinely happy, but Akira supposes it would be odd if they weren’t both happy. It was their anniversary after all, and they were both together. 

“It turned out nicely. Thank you again for taking our photo; we both really appreciate it.” Goro spoke up to again thank the man. 

“No problem, and it may be a bit forward of me to say, but you two make a nice couple.” They both blushed once the man said it. Were they really that obvious? “I hope you two continue to be happy with each other.”

That was the last thing the man said as he walked away leaving Akira with Goro and a pounding headache that felt like it was going to break his skull open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alt chapter title of Akira is very confused all the time because honestly what is going on?


	4. Looking at the Fine Print

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira felt pain shoot through his head again after he and Goro walked outside of the aquarium. He tried his best to not show it visibly, but he failed miserably as he very clearly tripped and stumbled over nothing.
> 
> Goro was looking him over with concern in his eyes, and not for the first time in their date, Akira felt embarrassed. Yes, he wasn’t happy that he had a pounding headache that decided to come and attack his mind out of nowhere, and yes he had the strange feeling that he had experienced these terrible headaches sometime ago, but he didn’t want to ruin the day. As much as his head begged him to lay down and rest, he didn’t want to ruin the day for himself and Goro because of a headache that could go away at any moment. 
> 
> “Y-Yeah, I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

Akira felt pain shoot through his head again after he and Goro walked outside of the aquarium. He tried his best to not show it visibly, but he failed miserably as he very clearly tripped and stumbled over nothing.

“Akira?” Akira turned his head towards Goro once the other had said his name, “Are you alright? You look a bit pale; do you want to sit down?”

Goro was looking him over with concern in his eyes, and not for the first time during their date, Akira felt embarrassed. Yes, he wasn’t happy that he had a pounding headache that decided to come and attack his mind out of nowhere, and yes he had the strange feeling that he had experienced these terrible headaches sometime ago, but he didn’t want to ruin the day. As much as his head begged him to lay down and rest, he didn’t want to ruin the day for himself and Goro because of a headache that could go away at any moment. 

“Y-Yeah, I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

Goro still looked concerned and unconvinced that Akira was in fact fine, but it seemed like Goro wasn’t going to push him on the subject anymore which Akira was grateful for.

“It’s gotten rather late,” Goro said filling the silence that had taken over their conversation, “Would you like to head back to LeBlanc, and once we're there, perhaps we could play a few games of chess and then go up to your attic for the night.”

“You’re staying over?”

“Well, I guess I never formally asked, but I thought since today is special to us, and we both have the day off tomorrow, I just thought that we would both enjoy spending the night together…”

Goro seemed to get more and more flustered and flushed in his face as he kept on rambling about wanting to spend the night with Akira in his small attic. Akira felt his own face start to heat up before he decided to stop Goro’s ramblings.

“Y-Yeah, that sounds great! I’ll make us both some coffee when we get back, but first can I try to make up for something?”

Akira had felt (and was still feeling) very bad that he hadn’t gotten Goro anything for their anniversary especially after Goro had gotten him flowers and planned their day, so he wanted to change that. He already knew what he wanted to get Goro. The idea had come to him like an epiphany, but he wanted to take Goro with him to make sure the gift would fit correctly. 

“I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, but I won’t try and stop you. Where are we going?” Goro seemed curious as to where Akria was going to lead them to. Akria decided to make the first move this time, and he took Goro’s hand and pulled him into a small, sweet kiss.

“You’ll see soon enough sweetheart.”

Akira led them both back onto the train which led them back to Shibuya and through Central Street to the Underground Mall. Akira took them both around to the jewelry store. Goro seemed to realize what Akira was doing right away because Akira could hear him let out a small gasp when they entered the store. 

Akira already knew what ring he wanted to get Goro as a promise ring. There was a sliver one that wasn’t too much money (though last Akira check, he had apparently come across one million yen, so money wasn’t really a concern) and looked simple enough that Goro wouldn’t complain about it being too flashy or getting in the way of his work. 

“A-Akira,” Goro tapped his arm once Akira had picked out the silver ring, “you really don’t have to get this for me. Of course I appreciate the sentiment, but really you don’t need to do this to make up for anything that’s happened today. Truly, today has been wonderful even with you not feeling so well because of the headaches.”

Akira stopped for a second. He didn’t remember telling Goro that he was having headaches, but Goro was smart, so maybe he figured it out, but still…

“How did you know that I’ve been getting headaches?”

“Oh, you don’t remember telling me back at the aquarium? Perhaps they’re so bad that you don’t remember that. We should probably-”

Goro got caught off mid sentence as the clerk asked to see his hand so that she could get his ring size. Goro complied, and was distracted by the sales clerk which gave Akira some much needed time to gather his thoughts and try to remember what had happened. 

He tried to remember telling Goro about his headaches, but he couldn’t no matter how much he pushed his mind to try and remember what Goro had said. Akira was then hit with the realization that he actually did tell Goro about his headaches after the man who had taken their photo had left, but that didn’t make sense to Akira. He remembered that he was trying so hard to hide his pain from the headaches from Goro, so it didn’t make sense that he would suddenly admit to Goro that his head felt like it was trying to kill him. Speaking of headaches, another one seemed to surface the more and more Akira thought about the contradictions in Goro’s statement. 

Had Goro lied to him?

Akira didn’t like the thought as soon as it came into his head. Why would Goro feel the need to lie about such a simple thing? Sure it was a bit odd he knew Akira was experiencing bad headaches, but Akira didn’t think it was strange enough that Goro needed to lie about it. Maybe there was a bigger reason as to why Goro had lied about the situation, but Akira couldn’t think through the migraine that was growing in his head.

“Look Akira!” Akira’s attention was pulled away from the pain in his head and questions about Goro to look at Goro’s right hand that now had a silver bangle on it. Goro looked very excited to be wearing it, and it brought a smile to Akira to see his boyfriend so happy with a gift that he had gotten him, “I love it so much Akira.”

Akira was now blushing, and his migraine seemed to be completely gone which made him feel even happier than he was already feeling, “Just know that that’s a promise ring. A promise that we’ll be together no matter what happens.” 

“R-Really? You promise that no matter what happens between us that we’ll always be together?”

“Of course I promise, Goro. After all, I love you.”

The last words seemed to take the both of them by surprise. The words seemed to come out of Akira before we could even think about what he was saying. Both of them had known that they cared for each other very deeply, but neither of them had ever said the extent of their feelings out loud. 

“I...love you too Akira.”

Both of them were blushing madly as they left the jewelry store. They were holding hands again as they walked through Station Square and back towards the stairs of the train station to head back to LeBlanc, and Akira felt his face heat up just a little bit more every time he felt the ring that was now on Goro’s finger. 

_ I’m going to be entirely honest with you: I hate you. _

Akira nearly tripped down the stairs that led to the train station, and if Goro wasn’t holding his hand, he’s quite sure he would have tumbled down the steps.

“W-Why would you say that?” Akira turned towards Goro, choosing to ignore how he almost tripped down the steps and the pain in his head that had hit him full force once he had heard Goro’s voice say that he hated Akira, but that couldn’t be right. Not even five minutes ago, Goro had said he loved him, so why would he say that he hated Akira now?

“I didn’t say anything?” Goro looked confused about what Akira was accusing him of.

“N-No you did just now. You said that you...hate me.”

“Akira, why would I ever say that?”

Akira tried to think about why Goro would hate him, but instead he saw or possibly hallucinated something instead. 

He saw himself and Goro standing right where they were right now. He couldn’t hear what was being said, but the expression on Goro’s face was a mix of anger and surprise. He saw Goro bring his hand up to take off one of his gloves and then to Akira’s surprise, he threw his glove at Akira.

“Akira!” Akira felt himself being shaken, and he was snapped back into reality when he heard Goro frantically calling out his name, “You looked like you were about to pass out. What happened? Is it the headaches again?”

There he goes mentioning the headaches again when Akira didn’t remember talking about them with Goro in the first place (or rather, he didn’t trust his memory about talking about them with Goro). Goro was right though, pain was splitting through his brain which made him not able to think straight. All he could do to respond to Goro was give a small nod.

“Do you think you can make it to the train? You can sit down once we get on board.”

Akira gave another small nod as Goro took the lead in taking them both to the train. They made it to the train without Akira having any more visions or whatever he saw back at the stairs, and they were lucky enough to find two seats on the train next to each other. What luck.

“Now, do you want to tell me what happened back at the stairs?” Goro started to question him, and Akira thought he had a right to know since Akira saw Goro in his...whatever happened to him. It felt like a memory to Akira, but he can’t think of why Goro would say he hates him and throw his glove at Akira if they’ve had a good relationship for the past year.

“I remembered something, and I saw it too. You said you hated me, and then you threw your glove at me.”

Goro didn’t seem concerned by this, in fact, he started laughing at Akira.

“Oh Akira, you probably didn’t get much sleep last night; you’re simply making that up. That never happened in reality, but perhaps it happened in a dream you had last night, and you simply mixed the two up.”

It felt pretty real to Akira. He tried again to think through the pain that was coursing through his head. He tried to think of what had happened before Goro threw his glove at him, but he couldn’t. His mind seemed to draw a blank when he tried to think back on the event. He got a feeling of deja vu when he remembered how sure he had felt that they had run into a reporter when they went to the aquarium for the first time even though Goro had at first claimed that they hadn’t run into anyone. 

“Looks like we’ve arrived at our stop,” Goro snapped him out of his train of thought.

The walk to LeBlanc was uneventful. Akira couldn’t stop thinking about the strange memories that he had and how Goro had lied about each one of them. He suddenly had an idea. For the first time that day, he reached into his pocket, and he felt a piece of fabric. Akira took it out of his pocket, and he saw that the item was a glove. Specifically, it was the glove that he remembered Goro throwing at him. 

Akira extended his hand to show Goro the glove, “See, here’s the glove that you threw at me. I always carry it in my pocket.”

Goro seemed shocked that Akira had one of his gloves, “B-But there’s no way you could have that…” Goro seemed to mumble to himself before he spoke directly to Akira, “I know, your hands must have been cold one day, and I gave you my gloves so that your hands could be warm again.”

Akira knew that was wrong. Even with the burning pain in his head, he knew Goro was wrong. What Goro said didn’t even make sense. If he had given Akira his gloves, why would Akira only return one of the gloves. Slowly, he was starting to remember more and more about the events that led to Goro giving him his glove. 

“We fought in Mementos didn’t we? I defeated you in battle, and then you threw your glove at me and declared a rematch.”

Goro seemed to be stunned into silence for a few seconds before he rebounded, “What’s Mementos, Akira? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of it.”

Akira’s head seemed to be screaming at him to stop thinking and go along with Goro and say that he didn’t actually know what Mementos was and that yes, Goro had just given Akira his gloves one day, and Akira was a fool who forgot to return both gloves, but at the same time, he heard a small voice in the back of his head that told him to keep remembering through the pain. 

“Mementos is a...place that we go to in the Metaverse. We also go into p-palaces to steal the distorted desires of corrupt adults, and our latest target is-”

Memories came crashing onto Akira like a violent wave. They came so violently that he fell to the ground clutching his head in pain. He barely heard Goro call out before he was swept up in remembering. 

Takuto Maruki. He was their current target. Maruki had been on a different scale then their other targets; he had distorted all of reality, and all of his friends had gotten caught up believing in the false reality. He and Goro had gone to take down Maruki by themselves, but the Goro he was remembering was drastically different than the one in front of him right now. 

The Goro he was remembering was cynical. He remembered Goro looking ready to shred multitudes of shadows into dust if it meant that he could do the same to Maruki and his fake reality. He remembers the feeling of a sword being torn through him as he saw a blank look in Goro’s eyes behind his red tinted mask. Shouldn’t Akira be dead? That was something to think about later. 

Akira began to realize that the Goro he had supposedly been dating for a year and the Goro who threw his glove at him with the promise of a rematch were not the same person. 

Akira tried to speak, but the pain in his head was too great, and all that came out was a small mumble. 

Goro (well not Goro, Akira dimly thought to himself) seemed to notice the sound that Akira had made, “What did you say Akira?”

Akira tried again to speak. 

“W-Who are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could it be? Plot?!


	5. Reviewing Terms and Conditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira couldn’t see anything. All he could see was darkness; this was because he was currently on the ground in pain, but that didn’t stop him from hearing the scoff that came from the person in front of him.
> 
> “What do you mean by: who am I? I’m me, Akira. I’m Goro Akechi.”
> 
> “No, you’re…not. You’re not the r-real Goro.”

Akira couldn’t see anything. All he could see was darkness; this was because he was currently on the ground in pain, but that didn’t stop him from hearing the scoff that came from the person in front of him.

“What do you mean by: who am I? I’m me, Akira. I’m Goro Akechi.”

“No, you’re…not. You’re not the r-real Goro.”

“There’s only one me. I don’t see how there could be another. Perhaps, we should hurry back to LeBlanc to get some rest; you seem to really need some.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”

Akira dug in his heels (literally and metaphorically) when Goro tried to dodge Akira’s attempts for answers. He managed to lift his head up to see Goro with a troubled expression on his face. It looked like he was weighing his options, but Akira didn’t know what those options could possibly be.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you,” Goro stated firmly.

“And why can’t you tell me?”

Goro went silent for a few seconds before he responded, “Because he doesn’t want me to tell you…”

That made Akira more annoyed than he already was, “Who the hell are you talking about?”

“You actually think I could tell you that?”

It was worth a shot, and Akira was slowly recovering more and more of the truth, so he actually had a pretty good idea who Goro was referring to.

“You’re talking about Maruki aren’t you?”

Goro seemed to freeze up, and Akira took that as confirmation that he was right. He decided to continue on with his theory about what was happening.

“We’re in his reality right now, but I don’t know how we got here. The real Goro seemed so...determined to not let that happen, so I need to know how we got here.”

Goro (or more specifically the fake in front of him) seemed to give up. Akira saw his face go neutral as he spoke.

“Alright, I’ll tell you what I know, but it won’t be a full picture, however, you need to stand up first. You shouldn’t be experiencing the headaches anymore, so standing shouldn’t be a difficulty for you,” Akira heard Goro laugh a little, “I hardly think it would be proper to give you all of this information in the middle of a back alley.”

Once Akira heard what he said, he found that his headache was in fact gone, and he could also think clearly now which was probably a good thing considering all of the information Goro was about to give him. Goro offered his hand to help Akira up, but Akira didn’t take it. 

“Any place you would like to go?” Goro asked. 

“Let’s go to Inokashira Park. The fresh air will help me think.”

They only had a short train ride to get there, but it felt like a lot longer to Akira. He couldn’t stop his mind from racing while he tried to figure out what was going on with himself and reality. He also tried to figure out what happened to the real Goro, but that was harder to think about. 

They arrived, and they continued their silence until they found an empty bench by the pond. They both sat down before Goro spoke up. 

“I suppose you’re wondering about a lot of things right now.”

Akira had to roll his eyes at that. Goro was saying the obvious because who wouldn’t have a multitude of questions right now, but he didn’t interrupt Goro; he let him continue. 

“I’ll state what you already know which is the fact that we are in Maruki’s reality right now. It’s overridden the old reality after Goro- ah, we should make this simpler. It’s going to get confusing if I refer to myself as Goro and the other one as Goro as well.”

“Just call yourself Goro and the one from my reality Akechi,” Akira stated, trying to help Goro better explain what was going on.

Goro gave a nod of understanding before he continued from where he left off, “Maruki’s reality overrode your reality when Akechi decided to take Maruki’s deal.”

That didn’t make sense to Akira, but it was the only explanation for how he got here now. Akechi had seemed so set in his ways that he would never accept Maruki’s reality, so what changed? Akira already had an idea, but he figured he should ask anyway. 

“Why did Akechi do that? From what I remember he hated Maruki’s reality, so I don’t understand why he would suddenly take Maruki’s deal.”

Goro gave a small laugh, and a small smile formed on his face, “Are you sure you’re remembering correctly?”

Akira gave him an unamused glare.

“Worth a shot,” Goro went back to having a neutral expression on his face before he continued explaining, “As to why Akechi took the deal, I’m sure he had more reasons, but to put it simply you died.”

Akira did remember that happening. He remembered Akechi getting hit with the brainwashing effect, and then all Akira remembers after that is Akechi’s sword going through his stomach and the darkness that followed. 

“Shouldn’t Akechi be here with me now instead of you?” Akira questioned, “If Akechi took the deal, it would only make sense that he was here instead of you.”

“Well, Akechi had a condition when he took Maruki’s deal,” Goro seemed apprehensive to continue, but after a few seconds, he kept on talking, “Akechi took the deal with the condition that he wouldn’t be apart of this reality, or to put it in better terms, he wished to be dead.”

Akira had to process this, and Goro seemed to realize that too because he stopped talking. Akira had died in Maruki’s reality, but Akechi had taken Maruki’s deal so that Akira would be alive again, but in return, Akechi didn’t want to live in this reality, so he had Maruki make sure he was dead. That made sense to Akira, but Akira still thought it was extremely selfish of Akechi to leave him in this fake reality all by himself. 

He gave a bitter laugh before he responded to Goro, “It sounds like something Akechi would do, but that still doesn’t explain why you’re here. Why couldn’t Maruki just erase Akechi from my memory entirely?”

“He tried that, but it didn’t work. Do you remember going to the arcade with your friends the other day?” Goro stopped to give Akira some time to remember.

Goro was right. Akira remembered when he had asked about Goro (well Akechi in this case) the other day, and all of his friends looked at him like he was delusional, and their to defense, he was. They had all forgotten that Akechi had ever existed, but Akira was the exception. Akira also remembers how he heard Akechi’s voice when he was playing Gun About with Ryuji, and after that, he stepped out of the arcade and went back to LeBlanc where he passed out on his bed from his headache.

“So, Maruki saw that he couldn’t make me forget about Akechi, but he couldn’t bring Akechi back from the dead either since that would be breaking the agreement that they had both come to. Do I have all of that right?”

“Yes, you seem to be understanding so far,” Goro gave confirmation to Akira, “I’m assuming you’re able to easily recall what’s happened today.”

Akira could remember this rollercoaster of a day quite well, so he didn’t need any reminders, but he still had two questions about Goro and his existence.

“I still don’t understand why you exist, and I don’t understand who or what exactly you are.”

“To answer your first question, it’s because Akechi is your wish. You can’t be happy without him. If he was gone, you would have always felt like something was missing, and you would have never had true happiness.”

Akira interrupted, “But, you’re not the real Akechi, so that doesn’t answer my question.”

Goro acknowledged his statement with a nod before he continued, “Remember all of those lies I kept telling you? Things like you and me dating for a whole year, or how we didn’t run into that reporter on our ‘first date’ to the aquarium, those were all to try and cover up the old reality and your memory of Akechi. In a sense, Maruki tried to replace Akechi with me.”

The shock must have shown on Akira’s face because Goro gave a light laugh in response. 

“I suppose I failed in that regard. Akechi seems like he was a lot better at telling lies than I am, but how was I supposed to come up with a lie about how you had only one of his gloves in your pocket.”

“So all of the headaches?”

“Ah yes, they were to try and prevent you from remembering the old reality. The more you tried to remember the other reality, the worse they would get, but having Akechi’s glove from the old reality must have been the tipping point that you needed to finally remember everything even through all of the headaches you were experiencing.”

Akira was a bit confused, “Why am I not experiencing them now even though I’m remembering the old reality?”

“Did you feel any headaches when you first denied Maruki’s reality in your old reality?”

Akira shook his head.

“It’s just like that. Even though he wants you to forget the old reality and accept his, you’ve denied his reality so that you can remember yours.”

Akira had his ability as a trickster to thank for that. He’s almost positive that the only reason that he and Akechi were able to stand against Maruki for so long in the true reality was because they were both wildcards.

“So,” Akira spoke up once he was pretty sure he understood what Goro was saying, “Maruki made you as a sort of replacement to Akechi because my wish was...Akechi, and I apparently couldn’t have true happiness without him, but since he wanted to be dead in this world, I would have never been truly happy,” Goro gave a nod of confirmation, “You still haven’t answered the question of what you are.”

Goro seemed to consider it for a moment before giving Akira an answer, “You’ve said it pretty nicely yourself: I’m a replacement. I have all of Akechi’s memories of you and everything else, but...I’m not Akechi. To be blunt, I’m practically just a shell that looks like him and has his memories.”

Goro might have tried to hide it, but Akira could see him fiddling with the promise ring that Akira had given him earlier that day. Goro took in a breath before he continued. 

“I’m sort of like a doll that you get to play with. I’m only here to make sure you’re happy.”

Akira almost felt bad for Goro. He still seemed like a person that could experience real feelings like Akechi would have, but he didn’t react the same way Akechi would have. When Akira gave Goro the promise ring, Goro was thrilled with it, but Akira’s positive that if he gave the same gift to Akechi, he wouldn't show even a shred of excitement about it. Akechi would probably scoff at him and put the ring in his pocket rather than put it on his finger. Goro was right, he was only here to make Akira happy and fulfill Akira’s wish of seeing Akechi again.

“Akechi won’t end up remembering anything that happens in this reality?”

“No, like I said, we’re not the same person. Everything that’s happened in this reality will only be remembered by me and you. Akechi would never know what happens here, but it’s not like he’s ever coming back, so that hardly matters.”

Right, Goro was going to be of the mindset that Akira wouldn’t be able to get his reality back, but Akira had other plans.

“Goro? I’ve got one more question.”

Goro regarded him with a small hum. 

“Where is Maruki?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you look there, could it be answers??
> 
> I’m very sorry if the whole Goro and Akechi thing is confusing, but know that Akechi is the real deal and Goro is the fake that Maruki created. Hope that clears stuff up in case anyone was confused!


	6. Finding a Loophole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’ve figured out this much, but you can’t figure out where Maruki could possibly be? You’re more dense than I originally thought...well actually, I suppose you’re more dense than what Akechi originally thought.”
> 
> Akira feels like he’s been stabbed in the stomach (bad metaphor. very bad metaphor given the current situation) after Goro had said that, but now isn’t the time to sympathize with him.

Goro is looking Akira over like Akira is a fool, though if you asked the right people, they would also call Akira a fool.

“You’ve figured out this much, but you can’t figure out where Maruki could possibly be? You’re more dense than I originally thought...well actually, I suppose you’re more dense than what Akechi originally thought.”

Akira feels like he’s been stabbed in the stomach (bad metaphor. very bad metaphor given the current situation) after Goro had said that, but now isn’t the time to sympathize with him. 

He feels kind of idiotic that Maruki’s probable location hadn’t dawned on him sooner; it feels so obvious now that Goro had insulted him for not knowing.

“Maruki is in his palace, isn’t he?”

“Of course he’s at his palace, where else would he be?”

Akira rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, “Well, we saw him at the aquarium early, so he could just be wandering around Tokyo for all we know,” Akira thinks about it a bit more, and it isn’t a terrible defense for himself. It made a bit of sense that the person who made this new world would want to walk around and see how it was working for everyone, “or what if he gained actual omnipotence and is now watching over us from the heavens above.” Akira adds as a bit of a joke. It must have worked because Goro laughs lightly. 

“If he was actually omnipotent, then you would have probably had a lot harder time getting all of your memories back.”

Akira didn’t really need the grim reminder that he could have never remembered anything from the true reality, and he would be living in blissful ignorance with Goro at his side instead of his friends and Akechi.

Akira stands up and stretches. The cold is starting to get to him a bit, and the last thing he needed before he fights Maruki is a runny nose and a sore throat. Goro gives him a curious look when Akira didn’t sit back down. 

“Come on, let’s go back to LeBlanc,” Akira said as he shrugs towards the general direction of LeBlanc, “I’m sure Boss left early since he thought it was our anniversary or whatever, so we should be able to talk more in private.”

“Good thinking,” Goro said as he stands up and gives Akira a bright smile that Akira knows is fake, “I was getting rather cold as well. Perhaps when we get back, you could make me a cup of coffee?”

Akira lets out a bitter laugh, “You really are a pretty good copy of Akechi…” 

For a second, Goro looks downcast about what Akira had just said, but it only shows on his face for a second before it is replaced with another fake smile.

“Well, I would hope I’m doing a good job since it is the only reason why I’m here in the first place.”

Akira decides not to jab him with the fact that Goro wasn’t able to keep up the act well enough since Akira was able to break free of Maruki’s illusion.

They make the short train ride back. Every now and then, Akira glances at Goro, and he sees Goro playing with the ring that Akira had given him earlier that day, like he had developed a nervous habit. Akira thinks it is kind of endearing, but he quickly shoos that thought from his mind. Once they get off the train, they only have a short walk back to the coffee shop, Akira decides that he can’t take the silence anymore. 

“So,” Akria says, dragging out the last letter, “If you have all of Akechi’s memories, then…” Akira stops himself realizing how foolish his question actually sounds, however, that doesn’t stop Goro from responding. 

“Then what?”

“N-Nothing, really it was a bad question anyway; it wouldn’t help the current situation.”

“Well, now I’m just more curious. You can tell me what you were going to say, I promise I won’t judge you no matter what it is.”

Akira can feel a blush forming on his face from embarrassment. He mind as well just say what he was going to say. 

“I-I was just wondering, since you have all of Akechi’s memories, could you...tell me how he actually felt about me,” Akira is looking to the ground like a life line so that he wouldn’t have to look at Goro, “I know he said he hated me, but I…I always thought, or maybe I always hoped that there might be more to it. B-But of course you don’t have to tell me! Akechi just seems like he would never actually tell me everything so-”

“Akira,” Goro speaks over his sudden rambling, “of course I’ll tell you if you want to know that badly, but let’s wait till we’re back to LeBlanc; we’re almost there anyway.”

Akira looks up from the ground to look at Goro with surprise on his face. Akechi would have never told Akira all of his feelings about Akira so easily, but this was Goro that would be telling him this information, so was it really so different?

‘ _ Of course I’ll tell you if you want to know that badly, _ ’ Akira thinks back on the words that Goro had said just a moment ago. Akira thinks about it a bit more until it dawns on him, ‘ _ Does he have to tell me because it will make me happy? _ ’ Akira doesn’t know how he feels about that. 

“Seems like we’ve arrived.” Goro said, dragging Akira out of his thoughts. 

Akira opens the door to the small cafe, and he expects it to be empty, so he is surprised when he sees a customer in the second booth from the door when even Sojiro wasn’t in the cafe and the sign on the door clearly said that they were closed. 

“Sir,” Akira starts up in a firm yet polite voice, “we’re closed for the day, so if you could please leave, that would be appreciated.”

“Oh,” the man says, turning around to face him and Goro who had just entered the cafe behind Akira. Akira can now see glasses on the man’s face and also brown hair that looks eerily familiar, “my apologies, but I thought you might want to have a conversation, Kurusu-kun.”

Maruki.

Akira can hear Goro gasp in surprise behind him, and Akira is sure that surprise was also showing on his face as well. Maruki laughs good naturedly before he speaks up again. 

“You seem to have remembered the old reality, and I’m assuming you want to go back to it. Ah, before I continue, sit down; you’ve had a long day.”

Akira did as he was told, but Goro decides to stand by the counter top between Maruki and Akira. 

“How can I go back to my old reality?”

“I see you’re starting off with the important questions right away. To answer, you would just have to steal my treasure, but I’m not quite sure you’re in a state to do that right now.”

“What do you mean?” Akira asks, trying to deflect what he already knew.

“All of your friends are fully immersed in this reality; there’s no possible way that they would remember the old reality like you do. You and I are the only ones who remember the terribly other reality.”

“Actually-“ Goro starts to speak, but he quickly stops when both Maruki and Akira turn to look at him. 

“What makes you think I can’t steal your treasure by myself?”

“In any normal situation, I wouldn’t doubt that you might be able to do so with your special powers, but I now have the powers to control all of reality on my side, so I am sorry to say that I don’t think that the odds are in your favor.”

Akira scoffs at him, “Doesn’t mean I still can’t try.”

“Oh,” Maruki looks at him with intrigue, “how about I make a deal, or maybe it’s more of a compromise, with you?”

Akira doesn’t speak for a couple seconds which is Maruki’s cue to tell Akira what he was thinking. 

“Tomorrow, I want you to come to my palace to try and steal my treasure. Since you helped me so much with research, you’re the sole reason I was able to make my dream into reality, so I only think it’s fair to give you a chance to fight for what you believe in. Of course, if you fail, you’ll stay in this reality, and you won’t remember anything of the old reality; I’ll make sure of that if you lose.”

“You expect to give me a ‘fair fight’ by having me infiltrate your whole palace in one day, get to your treasure, and fight you all in one day by myself.?”

“You do have a point,” Maruki pauses to consider Akira’s question, “How about we fight in the auditorium that we fought in before? I’ll also relocate my treasure there as well.”

Maruki was really too kind for his own good. 

“Alright, that sounds fair enough to me.”

“I should also say that if you change your mind about wanting to go back to the old reality, then all you need to do is not show up tomorrow, and I’ll take that as your answer. Oh, do you need to give me one of those cards?

Right, Akira did need to give him some form of a calling card so that his treasure would actually manifest. 

Akira gets up from his seat to look for a pen and some form of paper, and he sees that Goro was still standing by the counter top looking like he had been totally forgotten about in the conversation. Akira can ask him about it after Maruki leaves. 

He looks behind the counter of LeBlanc, and he finds that the best he was going to get for a short notice calling card was a napkin and a pen. Akira tries his best to write something close to what had been on their other calling cards, and he also makes a replica of the Phantom Thieves’ logo (which actually turns out quite well), and once he is done preparing it, he walks back over to Maruki and hands it to him.

Maruki looks at the sad excuses of a calling card and laughs a little.

“I’ve heard your calling…” Maruki said as he stands up and leaves the cafe with the calling card in his hand. 

Akira and Goro stand in silence for a few minutes before Goro decides to break it. 

“I remember you promising to make me a cup of coffee.”

Akira has to laugh at that, “I don’t think I actually promised to do that, but I feel like having a cup too, so just this once I’ll make you one too.”

Goro takes his normal spot (Akechi’s normal spot) at the counter top while Akira makes them both their coffee. It helps Akira to think through everything that had just happened.

Akira is going to have to prepare. He was going to have to see if was going to be able to get more medicine from Takemi, and he was also going to see if he would be able to get a better weapon and gun for Iwai. He should also make a trip to the Velvet Room to get better personas to cover weakness and the like, but Akira doesn’t actually know if he was going to be able to do all of that now.

He isn’t sure if he still had the same bonds with Takemi and Iwai in this reality like he had with them in the other reality. At worst, Akira was be a total stranger to them. He thinks about it a bit more, and he remembers that when yesterday he stepped out of the arcade and to the back alley where Iwai’s store was, he didn’t remember seeing the Velvet room there. Akira isn’t sure he can visit there anymore in this reality. He still has access to his current personas, but he wouldn’t be able to get new ones to help with healing. 

He finishes making both his and Goro’s coffees, and he must look troubled because Goro speaks up. 

“Do you want to take these upstairs? We can also talk up there.”

Akira gives him a nod as they both move up to Akira’s attic. Goro sits on Akira’s small couch, and Akira sits on the other side of it. They sit in silence for a while while they drink their coffee, and it was again Goro who decided to break the silence as he turns towards Akira. 

“I’ll help you.”

Akira is confused with how vague the statement is, “Help me with what?”

Goro looks pensive about clarifying himself, but he did nonetheless, “I’ll help you take down Maruki.”

Akira’s lucky he doesn’t have coffee in his mouth because if he did, he would have surely spat it out after what Goro had said.

“Y-You’ll what?!”

“You heard me the first two times; I don’t think I need to repeat myself a third time.”

Akira is still reeling from Goro’s proposal, “No, I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t know why you’re offering,” Akira thinks more about what Goro just said, and he realizes something, “Won’t you disappear if Maruki’s reality disappears?”

Goro laughs a little bit to himself, “Of course I’ll disappear if we get rid of Maruki’s reality, but how do you know the same thing won’t happen to you?”

Right, Akira had forgotten that he was technically dead.

“I-I guess I don’t know if I’ll disappear too, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take to get the true reality back,” Akira shakes his head. He can’t dwell on that right now, he can tell Goro is trying to avoid his first question, “That doesn’t matter right now; tell me why you’ll help me get rid of Maruki’s reality.”

“Do you remember the whole reason that Maruki made me in the first place?”

Akira thinks about it a bit, “He made you so that I would be happy.”

“And going back to your true reality would make you happy, correct?”

Goro is right, going back to his reality is what would make Akira the happiest. He gives Goro a small nod. 

“Then, it’s my purpose to help you get back your reality.”

Akira thinks he might tear up from happiness. He wouldn’t be alone when he had to face Maruki tomorrow, Akira would have Goro beside him. Akira moves across the small couch to bring Goro into a hug. Goro doesn’t reciprocate the hug right away, probably because he was surprised that he was being hugged so suddenly, but he does eventually wrap his arms around Akira as well.

“Thanks Goro, I was scared that I would have to face Maruki all by myself.”

“Don’t thank me yet; we haven’t beaten him yet.”

They sit there for a while in each other's embrace before Goro seems to remember something. 

“Oh, about what you asked about before we got back to LeBlanc and Maruki interrupted us.”

Akira lifts his head to give Goro a confused look.

“You asked about Akechi’s true feelings towards you?”

Ah right, Akira had asked that hadn’t he. 

“Oh um, you know actually, maybe you shouldn't tell me...I can always try and get him to talk about it after we beat Maruki and go back to the original reality.”

Goro seems pleased with his answer, “Good, I imagine you’ll have quite good success if you just be honest with him about your own feelings.”

Akria doesn’t really know what he means, but he decides to keep it in mind.

“I’ll go grab the spare sheets for the couch. We should try and get some sleep for tomorrow.” 

He unwinds himself from Goro’s embrace as he finds the box that has the spare sheets in it, and he puts them on the couch. 

“Well,” Goro speaks up, “I suppose tomorrow will be a big day for everyone whether they know it or not.”

Yeah, tomorrow only decides the fate of the whole world, nothing big or anything.

Akria gives him a light laugh as a response before he walks over to his bed, and says a quite good night to Goro as he tries to force himself to get some sleep in order to prepare for the battle that was in front of him and Goro tomorrow.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone curious, I currently am planning on having at least 2 more chapters before the end, but it’s a possibility that that might go up by one or two chapters
> 
> Also sorry if you were expecting the fight this chapter, but I promise that it will come next chapter :)


	7. Reworking the Compromise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are you ready?” Akira said as he turned to Goro, but he saw that Goro was looking at the palace with something that looked like fear and apprehension in his eyes, “Hey, Goro, are you okay? Don’t tell me you’re backing out now.”
> 
> Goro took his gaze off of the palace to look at Akira.
> 
> “N-No not at all, but...I feel like there is something you should know before you make your final choice about taking back your reality.”

Akira couldn’t sleep, but that wasn’t really surprising considering everything that had happened in one day and what he would have to do tomorrow (well it was probably after midnight already, he’s been laying here for awhile, so today would be more correct). 

He couldn’t help that his mind wouldn’t stop troubleshooting every possible outcome for what would happen when they confronted Maruki. Goro was going to help him, which would make things easier for Akira, but he couldn’t help but think about how Goro was practically fighting for his death. Well, Akira could actually be fighting for his own end as well, but that didn’t matter as much to him. 

His eyes had adjusted to the dark enough that he could see Goro’s form laying on his small couch. Goro’s back was facing him, and Goro looked like he was in a scrunched position, but Akira couldn’t make him out that well thanks to the blanket covering Goro’s body. He looked like he was sleeping, but Akira had a hunch…

“Goro?” Akira quietly said into the darkness.

He heard some shuffling of blankets from the couch which meant that his suspension was correct.

“Yes?” Goro answered him without a hint of tiredness in his voice.

“Aren’t you uncomfortable?”

Akira heard Goro quietly scoff at him, “You woke me up just to ask me that? You really are something else.”

“You weren’t sleeping. You shouldn’t lie, it’s a terrible habit to have.”

“Fine, but what did you want?”

Akira didn’t actually know what he wanted. He knew he couldn’t sleep, and he was also pretty sure Goro couldn’t sleep, so Akira supposes that he just wanted to alleviate his boredom of not being able to sleep.

“Wanna watch a movie?”

Goro went quiet for a bit before he answered.

“Sure, it’s not like either of us will be able to sleep.”

Akira got up from his bed, and he checked the time on his phone. The light burned his eyes, but he saw that it was about three in the morning. He also used his phone as a light to grab the first movie that he could find, and he moved over to where his old TV was and put the disk into the DVD player.

He made Goro get off of the couch so that he could slant it to look at the TV, and once they were both back on the couch, he started playing the movie.

Akira wasn’t paying too much attention to it, but he was paying enough attention to know that the movie had something to do with death, premonitions, and avoiding death. According to the movie, the problem with avoiding death was that death always comes back for you, or something like that. Goro seemed to be enjoying it. 

“You’re actually enjoying the movie?” Akira decided to break Goro’s immersion in the film to ask him the simple question. 

“Yes, I think it’s rather interesting that death always seems to find unique ways to get back at the characters for avoiding it in the first place. Are you not enjoying it? You picked it out.”

“I kind of just picked out the first thing my hand grabbed.”

“Oh, we could always change it if you wanted to.”

“No, we’re already half an hour in, I didn’t really expect to pay attention to anything I picked out in the first place.”

“Then why watch a movie with me at,” Goro looked at his phone for the time (the screen had its brightness down so that it didn’t burn both of their retinas; Akira always knew Goro was really smart), “three twenty-seven in the morning?”

“Like you said earlier, it’s not like either of us can sleep, and…” Akira let his voice drift off. 

“And what?” Goro, never one to let an unfinished statement go, pushed Akira for what he was going to say. 

Akira’s brain couldn’t catch up fast enough before the words were already out of his mouth. 

“I guess I just felt bad that you’ll die tomorrow, and I don’t know, I think I just wanted to make sure that you had a nice last night or something.”

Akira could see Goro turn and look at him with confusion on his face.

He gave a harsh laugh before he responded to Akira, “So you decide to show me a movie about death and how no matter what you do, it will always come back for you. What a lovely way to lead into tomorrow!”

“Hey,” Akira was only a bit offended at what the other said, so for now Goro got off with getting a playful hit to his arm, “I told you that I picked it at random.”

They both fell into a small fit of tired laughter before it was replaced with only the movie filling the silence. After a few beats, Goro decided to speak again. 

“You do realize that this could very well be your last night as well, right?”

“Yeah, I do, but a part of me is okay with that. As long as I’m able to get the old reality back, as long as I’m able to get Akechi back, then I won’t falter.”

Akira saw a multitude of emotions dance across Goro’s face that were illuminated by the glow of the TV. He looked like he wanted to say something, but Goro must have decided against it for some reason. If Akira remembered, he could always ask him in the morning.

After that, the conversation ended, and Goro turned his attention back to the movie. They had probably been watching the movie for a little over an hour before Akira could feel himself fighting more and more to keep his eyes open. It barely registered in his brain when he eventually leaned on Goro’s shoulder and fell asleep.

***

When you sleep in an attic that has a window that has direct access to sunlight, whether you want to or not, you rise with the sun, and this was sadly the case for Akira who awoke to the sun streaming into the dusty attic. 

Once Akira had woken up a bit more, he realized that he was not in his bed, but he was on the couch where Goro was supposed to be sleeping. He looked over to his bed, and he saw Goro looking out of the aforementioned window that had woken Akira up. 

“W-Why...?” Akira tried to speak, but he was a bit too groggy to properly form words yet. 

Goro seemed to be able to interpret what Akira had just said,“You fell asleep on me last night, and I didn’t think the couch would be big enough for both of us to sleep on, so I took refuge on your bed.”

Right, Akira remembers that happening now, and he also now remembers asking Goro to watch a movie with him. He doesn’t really remember what the movie was about, but he’s sure that that’s the least of his worries right now. 

Today was the day that they were going to confront Maruki and take back the old reality. 

“What time is it?” Akira knew the sun was obviously up, but he wasn’t sure what time it was specifically. 

“It’s almost eight in the morning. Maruki never gave you a specific time to meet him did he?”

Akira thought about it, and Goro was right. They never agreed on a time, and Akira wonders if instead of watching a movie last night, they could have snuck into Maruki’s palace and stolen his treasure then. Probably not. 

Goro spoke up again, “I’m guessing you want some food before we fight for the future of reality?”

“Yeah, food sounds good.”

They both started to move to make themselves presentable enough to go outside, but ran into one problem pretty quickly. 

“Um, Akira?” Goro spoke as he looked down at the current clothes that he was wearing, “Not that I have a problem with wearing what I wore yesterday, but do you possibly have any spare clothes that I could wear?” 

“In the box on the bottom shelf by the stairs.” 

Goro gave him a simple thanks before he went over to Akira’s box of clothes. 

Once they had both changed (Akira into his everyday attire and Goro into one of Akira’s balck hoodies and jeans that were a tad big in his waist; Goro had also tied his hair up), they cautiously made their way downstairs to the main cafe. The stairs didn’t help with their stealth as they gave a loud creek alerting the cafe to their presence. Thankfully, Sojiro called from the cafe below. 

“You two can come down, there’s no one in here besides me.”

They both breathed a sigh of relief as they made the rest of the journeys down the stairs. 

“How did you know Goro was up there with me?” Akira decided to ask.

“I could hear you two talking from down here, and I do know a thing or two about anniversaries.” Sojiro said with a knowing smirk. 

Ah, Sojiro still thought they were dating. Well, this just got slightly awkward. It also didn’t help that Goro was currently dressed in Akira’s clothes. Thankfully, Akira was saved from having to respond to the older man thanks to Goro. 

“Oh well,” Goro gave a light laugh while pretending to be flustered, “Akira and I were just about to go get some food, so if you don’t mind…” 

Sojiro laughed good naturedly at him, “Then get going, don’t let me hold you up.”

They both walked out of the cafe while giving Sojiro a quiet goodbye. 

They decided on going to the small bakery in the Ginza line since they had to make their way to the train to get to Odaiba, so it was convenient. 

Akira got some sweet bread, and Goro got a pastry, and they ate their food in silence. After they were done, both of them got on the train to go to Odaiba. 

The train ride was made in silence (besides the few other passengers that were on the train), and after the commute, they made their way to Maruki’s palace.

It still creeped Akira out that nobody else besides himself, Goro, and of course Maruki reacted to the massive skyscraper laboratory that was Maruki’s palace. Akira looked up at the building with determination to get his reality back.

“Are you ready?” Akira said as he turned to Goro, but he saw that Goro was looking at the palace with something that looked like fear and apprehension in his eyes, “Hey, Goro, are you okay? Don’t tell me you’re backing out now.”

Goro took his gaze off of the palace to look at Akira.

“N-No not at all, but...I feel like there is something you should know before you make your final choice about taking back your reality.”

Akira remained silent to let Goro continue. 

“Well, um...Akechi is dead.”

He looked at Goro with a confused expression on his face.

“Of course he’s dead, that’s why you’re here right now.”

Goro looked down at the ground before he continued; Akira could see Goro twisting the silver band around his finger. 

“N-No, you don’t understand. You see, Akechi is most likely dead in your reality.”

Oh, now that Akira thought about it some more, that made some amount of sense now that he thought about it, but Akira still had a healthy amount of suspicion. 

“Why would you think he’s dead; why tell me this now?”

“Something has been bothering me about Akechi’s memory for a while now,” Goro started explaining, “There’s a gap between when he parted ways with you in the engine and when he met up with you and Sae on Christmas Eve. Do you know what happened on Christmas Eve?” Goro asked as a rhetorical question to Akira, “Maruki took control of reality.”

“S-So, you think that Maruki reincarnated Akechi on Christmas Eve, and Akechi is actually dead in my reality. Isn’t that all just circumstantial evidence, _ detective _ .”

“I didn’t say he was definitively dead, however, I wanted you to know just in case knowing that he might be dead would change your decision about getting rid of this reality.” 

“There’s a chance that he’s alive, right?”

“Correct,” Goro answered him with a nod.

“Then the worst that could happen is that I’ll be alive and Akechi will be dead…” Akira reasoned more to himself than Goro, but Goro decided to comment anyway. 

“Wouldn’t the worst case scenario be that you’re both dead?”

Akira laughed quietly to himself, “I guess you wouldn’t get it…”

They stood in silence for a while, and Akira took in everything. 

If Akira hadn’t thought gambling his own life was worrying enough, now he had to consider if Akechi would be dead if he got his reality back. Did Akechi already know that he might be dead and he was brought back just because Akira wished for it? Would Akechi even want to be alive even if Akira was able to get the old reality back? He wanted to be dead in Maruki’s reality, and Akira had originally thought that Akechi just hadn’t wanted to live in a lie (Akira himself didn’t want to live in this false reality), but maybe there was more to it.

Goro interrupted his thoughts, “So, do you intend to still fight Maruki?”

Akira let a few beats of silence go by before he gave his answer.

“Y-Yeah, we’re going to get our true reality back; I’m sure that’s what Akechi would have wanted, and it’s what I believe to be right.”

“Alright, sounds like you’ve truly made up your mind, but let me give you one thing before we head in.”

Akira was confused, but he saw Goro take the silver bangle off of his hand, and he held it out to Akira. It didn’t help to get rid of Akira’s confusion, and Goro must have seen this, so he decided to elaborate. 

“I know it’s a bit odd to give it to you since you bought it for me, but I want you to hold onto it. Just in case your worst case scenario does happen and Akechi is dead but you’re alive, at least you’ll have this from me since you wouldn’t be able to fulfill your promise of a rematch with him.”

Akira took the ring with silent shock. 

He was really touched by the gesture in a strange way that he couldn’t quite name, but he did appreciate it nonetheless. Akira again started to feel bad for Goro in all of this. He was made and forced to play a part; forced to make another play it with him. Goro had an unfair task before him, and he ultimately failed, but it didn’t turn out badly because the other was helping him now. The only one who really lost was Goro. 

He couldn’t think about that now. It was too late to start thinking about details like that. 

Akira slid the ring onto his own right hand, and the ring was a bit snug, but other than that, it felt nice on his hand. 

Goro seemed to think of something in the silence, “I forgot to ask, but do you actually have a plan for defeating Maruki, or were you planning for us to charge in there guns blazing?”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan, but I can’t guarantee it will be a good one.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing, let’s hear it.”

***

Akira was a little surprised to see Goro in his white prince suit instead of his balck mask outfit, but it didn’t really matter. Goro had asked if Akira wanted him to switch to the other outfit, but Akira told him to do what felt more comfortable to him. 

They split off from one another (Akira heading directly to the auditorium, and Goro following from somewhere soon to also arrive in the auditorium but not alongside Akira) according to their plan. Akira had done the best to make an on the fly plan, and sure it might not have been his best critical thinking skills, but he thinks it might be enough to at the very least outsmart Maruki. 

The general idea of it was that while Akira was fighting Maruki, Goro would sneak off and steal the treasure while Akira was distracting Maruki. He was pretty sure that Maruki hadn’t foreseen Goro switching sides (had he really switched sides? wasn’t he technically always on Akira’s side), so they had an ace up their sleeves. 

Akira arrived in the auditorium without having run into any shadows, which was an odd feeling since the palace security was so high, but he wasn't complaining. He was going to need most of his strength to keep Maruki distracted. Akira saw that the man was still in his white suit with his hair slicked back, and Akira surveyed the area a little bit more and saw the treasure sitting right behind Maruki in the center of the auditorium. 

He didn't know whether or not he was surprised or completely unsurprised that Maruki had upheld his end of the deal. 

“I see you’ve made your decision,” Maruki spoke from in front of his treasure. 

“I have, and I plan to take back my reality, no matter what that means.”

Maruki gave him a kind smile, “I’m glad to see that you have so much faith in your beliefs,” Maruki brought up a hand to grab his glasses and take them off, “Sadly for you, I have just as much faith in mine…”

The words that came out of Maruki’s mouth next were the last words he ever expected to hear and the last words he ever wanted to hear.

“Persona.”

Akira didn’t even have time to be shocked. In a blinding flash of light, he saw Maruki’s normally white suit get replaced by what looked to be golden latex covered by a white tarp that was trying its best to look like a cape. Maruki’s mask looked like a golden tower? Akira wasn’t really quite sure what Maruki’s idea of rebellion was supposed to be, but Akira felt threatened nonetheless. 

He mainly felt threatened by the larger than average persona that had formed behind Maruki. The thing had multiple tendrils, and Akira felt the ground shake below him. It was only thanks to reflexes built up from six months of phantom thieving and going to the gym that he was able to react and roll out of the way of the tendrils that had sprung up from the ground in an attempt to grab him. 

From his roll, Akira moved his momentum forward so that he was now running at Maruki with his dagger in his hand. 

Akira was sure that Maruki didn’t have any intention to kill him (it didn’t seem in the man’s nature in the slightest), and Akira had no intention to kill Maruki. If Akira had wanted Maruki dead, he would have recommended the guns blazing plan to Goro, but all Akira had to do for their current plan was keep Maruki distracted enough to not realize that his own treasure was being stolen by his own creation. 

He plunged his dagger forward, but his effort was stopped by tendrils that came up to guard Maruki. Akira quickly jumped backwards to avoid being grabbed by the persona’s tendrils. 

It looks like he did a bit of damage to the part of the tendrils he hit, but not enough to really matter. Akira stepped back and summoned Metatron who cast a Megidolaon onto the persona and its user. 

The spell seemed to hit both of its targets; Akria was able to Maruki falter a bit from the almighty blast that had just hit him and his persona at full force. However, Akira got a bit too distracted, and he didn't see the bless attack aimed straight at him. It was a heavy hit, and he stumbled for a second, but after you had taken multiple hits from one false god, you were able to take hits from another one as well. 

Akira switched his persona, and he cast a light healing spell on himself as he braced for Maruki’s next attack. 

He saw that Maruki was gathering some form of energy, and Akira knew that that could only mean bad things for him, but then he saw a figure of white coming from behind Maruki’s persona. 

_ Goro _

Without thinking, Akira switched to Lucifer and quickly cast a devastating Morning Star that was sure to keep Maruki’s focus away from Goro. The blast sent shock waves through the palace, but Goro seemed to pay no mind to the impact as he quickly grabbed the treasure and ran past Maruki towards the stairs that led out of the auditorium.

Everything seemed to be going well, better than Akira had thought, but the problem came once Maruki recovered from the magic blast. 

Goro must not have expected to have been stopped, so he got caught off guard when tendrils came and wrapped around his body stopping him in his tracks with the treasure held in his left hand. The same happened to Akira. He could feel the tendrils fully curl around his body until he couldn’t move his body at all. 

Akira saw Maruki raise his hand and from behind Akira, he saw Goro lose his grip on the treasure as it started to fly back towards Maruki. 

Goro (always the quick thinker out of the two of them) let out a shout of, “ _ Robin Hood! _ ” Akira saw the Megido fly towards Maruki before the treasure could reach him. Maruki was sent backwards thanks to the impact from the Megido, and both Goro and Akira had been released from the tendrils. 

Not wasting any time, Akira quickly picked up the treasure that had landed by him, and he started to sprint towards the stairs that would lead to their freedom. He looked back fully expecting to see Goro following him, but instead he saw the other in a stance ready for battle against Maruki. 

“Goro!” Akira shouted while turning back towards the auditorium. Maruki still seemed to be recovering from the blasts of magic that had hit him, “What are you doing? We have to go!”

“You have to go!” Goro shouted back, “You have the treasure; run out of here, and get your reality back!”

“B-But, I can’t leave you beh-”

Goro turned his head a little so that Akira could see part of his face. He seemed to be smiling even if it was only a small, sad smile. 

“You’re not leaving me behind; you still have our promise ring don’t you?”

Akira gave a nod to Goro as he clutched his right hand into a fist and resumed running towards the entrance of the palace.

He had to be a bit more cautious when running out of the palace with the treasure, since the shadows seemed to be on very high alert now, but once he got outside the entrance hall, he activated the Nav, and his vision went to black as he managed to remove the treasure from the palace and remove himself from this distorted reality. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and the plot keeps coming >:3c
> 
> slightly longer chapter (the longest chapter in fact) than most because someone decided they wanted to dump a 1k of mild fluff at the beginning...whoops
> 
> also I tried my best for the fight with Maruki, so I hope you guys liked it; I’m pretty happy with it
> 
> also also you may have noticed I’ve officially decided that this fic will have 2 more chapters! I know for certain that the next one will not be as long as this one, but the finale one might draw close, so I hope you’ll all look forward to it :D


	8. Return to Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “H-Have you seen Akechi around lately?” Akira asked with a bit of caution in his voice.
> 
> Sojiro gave him a glace that told him that Sojiro thought something was wrong with Akira, but he gave Akira an answer anyways.
> 
> “Haven’t seen or heard of him since your plan back in November. Why did something happen?”
> 
> Well, yes, something did happen, but Akira wasn’t about to tell the whole story about how Akechi had actually turned himself in, but Akira’s therapist became a god and Akechi made a deal with him that Maruki could have his reality as long as Akechi remained dead. That led to Goro getting made, and it ended with him fighting his therapist turned god. Also, Akria had died somewhere along the lines of that story, and the last thing he needed to do right now was make Sojiro think that he himself or Akira was crazy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyy, remember when I said this chapter was going to be shorter than most? 
> 
> haha...whoops.

When Akira regained his sense, he discovered that he was laying on something that felt like concrete, so he was either outside Maruki’s palace or some other unknown location, but no matter where he was, he was pretty sure he wasn’t dead. Akira had no idea what the afterlife would be like, but he was pretty sure this wasn’t it especially since he could feel a dull pain all throughout his body. 

He would open his eyes to see where he was, but he felt so exhausted, and that was probably due to the fact that he had just fought a man, who was practically a god, and then had to sprint out of a palace, while stealing said god’s distorted desires, all on little to no sleep. 

Well, Goro had really done most of the fighting in the end. Akira wouldn’t have been able to run away with Maruki’s treasure in hand if Goro hadn’t reacted and launched an attack at Maruki. Akira also wouldn’t have made it out if Goro hadn’t stayed back to keep Maruki distracted. 

He promptly moved the fingers on his right hand, and he was relieved to find that the silver ring was still there after everything. 

Akira wanted to keep his eyes closed, but his desire for answers won out, so he slowly started to open his eyes. 

Akira quickly realized that he was not laying in front of Maruki’s palace, but he was in a cold, grey room. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was wearing an outfit that was similar to what he used to wear in the Velvet Room. There also seemed to be bars on one side of the wall, and it dawned on Akira that he was in prison. 

He tries to remember how he got here, and this proves to be a lot easier and more headache free than he thought it would be. 

Before he got pushed into the whole fake reality thing, he remembers Sae coming up to him on Christmas Eve and asking him to turn himself in, but then Gor- Akechi had walked up and offered to do it for him instead. Was that a part of Maruki’s reality then? 

If everything went back to how it was supposed to be originally, then Akira is supposed to be in prison, and Akechi is supposed to be…

_ “N-No, you don’t understand. You see, Akechi is most likely dead in your reality.” _

_ “Something has been bothering me about Akechi’s memory for a while now. There’s a gap between when he parted ways with you in the engine and when he met up with you and Sae on Christmas Eve. Do you know what happened on Christmas Eve? Maruki took control of reality.” _

_ “S-So, you think that Maruki reincarnated Akechi on Christmas Eve, and Akechi is actually dead in my reality _ .”

Akira remembers having the conversation with Goro right before they were about to go confront Maruki and take back reality. He feels cold dread settle over his body. 

Was Akechi actually dead?

Goro had said that there was a chance that Akechi was alive, and Akira had latched onto that as he fought Maruki, but Akira considered the situation a bit more, and he started to wonder if Goro had maybe lied to him about Akechi possibly being alive just to make Akira feel better. 

He had no way to be sure if Akechi was alive or not, and Akira hated it. He couldn’t do anything in his state right now to figure out whether or not Akechi was alive. Akira felt useless as he continued to lay on the concrete ground of the prison. 

Subconsciously, he moved his left hand over to his right hand so that he could run his fingers over the ring (he must have accidentally picked that habit up from Goro). Right now, it looked like Akira’s worst case scenario had come true, but there wasn’t any going back now. If Akechi was dead and Akira was alive, there was nothing he could do about it. 

“Inmate!”

Akira was use to hearing that word come out in a high pitched voice, so it was strange to him to hear it come out in a gruff, male voice. He turned his head to see the prison officer standing right outside of his cell. 

“Get changed into normal clothes. Your guardian will be here to take you out soon.”

Seems like Akira will be able to start trying to get answers about Akechi a lot quicker than he originally thought.

***

Akira was overwhelmingly happy when he saw Sojiro pull up to the station in his car. 

Sojiro joked about how he hadn’t actually wanted to come and pick Akira up, and he only did so after Futaba wouldn’t stop bugging him. He really did miss Sojiro, and he can’t wait to see the others either. 

The last time Akira saw them was the time that they all went to the arcade in Maruki’s reality, and the time before that, they had all acted like they had barely known Akira at all. Needless to say, he was excited to see all of them again, and a small (probably naive) part of Akira hoped that Akechi would be there too.

Speaking of...

“Um, Boss?”

They were stuck in a traffic jam (one that was similar to one of the first times they had met), and Akira couldn’t think of a better way to spend the time other than talking.

“Yeah?” 

“H-Have you seen Akechi around lately?” Akira asked with a bit of caution in his voice.

Sojiro gave him a glace that told him that Sojiro thought something was wrong with Akira, but he gave Akira an answer anyways.

“Haven’t seen or heard of him since your plan back in November. Why did something happen?”

Well, yes, something did happen, but Akira wasn’t about to tell the whole story about how Akechi had actually turned himself in, but Akira’s therapist became a god and Akechi made a deal with him that Maruki could have his reality as long as Akechi remained dead. That led to Goro getting made, and it ended with him fighting his therapist turned god. Also, Akria had died somewhere along the lines of that story, and the last thing he needed to do right now was make Sojiro think that he himself or Akira was crazy.

“No, nothing happened.” Akira lied through his teeth, and whether Sojiro believed him or not is unknown, but the older man turned his head back towards the road to keep driving them both back to LeBlanc. 

They arrived back at the hole in the wall cafe, and Sojiro gave him a reassuring nod before he turned the door handle and saw all of his friends sitting in anticipation for his return, however, he saw quickly that both Sumire and Akechi were missing. 

“Now we’re only missing one more person,” Ann spoke up with the comment.

Akira decided to ask (especially after what Futaba had just said) the one question that he had been wanting to ask since he had found out that they were missing one person. 

“Where’s Akechi?”

He felt deja vu flow through him as all of his friends gave him questioning looks. 

Makoto decided to speak up for the group, “Do not remember what happened to him back on Shido’s ship? H-He died, Akira.”

“Yeah, I remember that, but don’t you guys remember Akechi turning himself in on Christmas Eve? Do you guys remember how Maruki took over reality?”

Akira was met with a room of concerned looks that were all directed towards him.

Breaking the silence, a bell from the entrance chimed. 

He turned to see Sumire, and he had never pitied a person more for walking into a conversation at a terrible time. 

Akira tried his best to break up the awkwardness in the room, “Hey Sumire! Have, um, practices been going well…”

He must not have done a good job of easing the tension because Sumire spoke up about the situation right away.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I walk in at a bad time? I can always leave if it’s something you don’t want to talk about around me; it’s good to see senpai is here though.”

Haru (ever the polite one of the group) spoke up.

“Sumire-san, no you’re welcome to join us, after all, it has been awhile since we’ve seen you as well.”

Sumire slowly walked over a bit closer to the counter top, but she didn’t take a seat.

Akira just felt plain terrible at this point. To him, he hadn’t been in prison for that long (maybe like half an hour at most), but to his friends he must have been in prison for… Akira realizes he doesn’t know exactly what the date is, but he doesn’t want to ask lest he add more tension to the already very tense atmosphere. 

His friends had been looking forward to seeing him again, and he wasn’t unhappy to see them all, but he just needed to know if Akechi was alive first before he could really be happy about his return to his reality and to them. He should set those desires aside for now and focus on the friends that are here with him now.

“How about I make everyone some coffee and curry? I’m sure Boss won’t mind too much since it’s for a celebration.”

“Ah, that would be delightful!” 

Leave it to Yusuke to always take up an offer for free food in any situation. He also heard a stomach growl from Sumire’s direction, so he threw on his apron while everyone else agreed to his offer of curry and coffee (except Ryuji and Futaba who both playfully demanded Akira make them some hot chocolate instead), and it was relaxing for Akira to work on something that was practically second nature to him at this point. 

Conversation slowly started to resurface between the rest of the group, and Akira was able to chime in while he was cooking. Soon enough, it seemed like Akira’s strange comments were forgotten, or at least weren’t going to be brought up again, and the atmosphere in the cafe full of his friends was light and happy. 

It got to be around the time that the trains would stop running, so slowly his friends filtered out except for Sumire, Futaba, and Morgana. 

“S-Senpai,” Sumire quietly spoke up, breaking the comfortable quite easily that had settled between the four of them, “Could I ask about what you all were talking about earlier before I walked in?”

Futaba and Morgana both gave him a glance, but he honestly didn’t mind telling her. 

“I just asked everyone if Akechi was going to be here today…”

“That doesn’t seem so bad?”

“You’re skipping over major story details there Akira.” Futaba pointed out, but Akira wasn’t sure if Sumire knew that Goro had technically died, so he decided he was still going to gloss over that detail. He was pretty sure he knew what Futaba was mentioning anyway.

“I also asked everyone if they remembered Maruki controlling reality.”

He heard Sumire audibly gasp next to him.

“B-But why would Dr. Maruki do that? Why would you think he did that senpai?”

She actually had a point. Akira doesn’t actually know why Maruki rewrote reality in the first place. He’s sure the good doctor had his reasons beyond his arrangements with Akechi, but Akira’s best guess at the moment was that Maruki honestly wanted everyone to be happy. There could always be more to it, but Akira was pretty sure that that was most of the story. 

He let out a short laugh before he responded to Sumire, “Guess it must have been a weird dream I had.”

That seemed to appease her, and at the same time, Futaba let out a yawn that told both him and Sumire that she was about to go back to Sojiro’s house.

“Come on Sumire,” Futaba said while walking over to them and draping herself over Sumire’s shoulder, “let’s go back to Sojiro’s and go to sleep. My bed is beckoning me!”

Akira gave Sumire a knowing look, “You two are having a slumber party?”

Sumire’s face went bright red, “W-Well yes! We are having a sleepover,” her face only got more red the more she tried to explain the situation to Akira, “s-since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and all, I-I recommended to Futaba that we should...have a sleepover!”

Sumire inadvertently answered Akira’s question about what day it was and also a few other things as well. 

Akira could tease her and Futaba about it right now, but he didn’t want Sumire to overheat and faint. 

“You two have fun then.” He decided to simply say. 

With a nod, Sumire escorted Futaba out of the cafe which left him alone with Morgana. 

“You know, it’s a real shame that you don’t have a date for tomorrow especially since you just got out of prison. Have you even been on a date before?” Morgana decided to, unintentionally, rub salt in Akira by jabbing at his dating life. 

While Akira would love to respond that he had technically (without his knowledge) dated Goro for a whole year, and that Morgana would never have a chance with his one true love of ‘Lady Ann’ because he was a cat (and Akira was also pretty sure that she was dating Shiho), Akira was also tired and wanted sleep and did not want to get into that argument right now. 

He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, and he went up to bed to sleep. 

When Valentine’s Day came, Ryuji and Yusuke ended up coming over, and Akira, more times than he would like to admit, fidgeted with the ring on his hand and felt for the glove in his pocket. 

It happened so many times that Ryuji eventually asked him about it, and Akira very shoddily came up with an excuse for the ring on his right hand. 

Something similar happened on White Day, but Akira didn’t really spend it with anyone else. He got some flowers for Sojiro to thank his guardian for everything that he had done for Akira, but then Akira decided to reminisce by going to the aquarium. 

Sure, he stood out by being the only single person in the aquarium and looking like he was about to shed tears over some fish, but Akira actually enjoyed the day in some strange way.

The day came when Akira had to go back to his hometown, and Akira was sad that he was going to have to leave his friends, but they all had their paths planned, and he knew they would all keep in touch. 

Akira was more disappointed by the fact that in his month of searching, he hadn’t found one trace of Akechi. 

He had checked all of their normal hangout spots, and even asked around if anyone had seen the detective who had just disappeared off of the face of the Earth, but he was met with the same disappointing response every time. 

Akira couldn’t worry about that right now though, this was the last time he would see his friends for a while, so he had to cherish it.

Unfortunately, the police had other plans for them. 

Someone in their group noticed that they were being watched by the police, and Akira didn’t really know what to do about it until a taxi pulled up and rolled down their window.

When the hell did Maruki decide to become a taxi driver?

Akira’s face was the only one that had a shocked expression as Maruki offered to help them with their problem and take Akira to the train station where they would meet up again. He needed some answers, so Akira decided to go with Maruki. 

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Akira spoke up.

“I’m assuming you remember your own reality?”

“I do indeed. None of your friends remember it do they?”

Akira let out a sigh, “No, they don’t, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

A couple more seconds of silence passed, and this time, Maruki spoke up. 

“Don’t you have a few more questions to ask me? You don’t have to worry; I understand that what I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have tried to force my beliefs about what was best for society on to the whole world. Even though I had good intentions, that didn’t necessarily make them right.”

Akira felt bad for Maruki. He was too nice for his own good, but Akira only had a limited amount of time in the taxi. 

“Do you know how I’m alive?”

“I don’t know the specifics, but it might have something to do with the fact that you died in my reality and not yours. Since you never died in this reality, you must still be alive in it according to the world.”

So that means that even if Akechi was alive in Maruki’s reality, if he was dead in this reality, Akechi would be dead no matter what. 

But Akechi was definitely dead in one reality and most likely dead in the other…

Akira starts to subconsciously rub the ring on his right hand. 

“Do...do you know if Akechi is alive in this reality?”

Maruki took his eyes off of the road for a short second to give Akira a sympathetic glance. 

“I’m sorry, but I honestly don’t know if he is alive in your reality.”

Akira felt his heart sink. 

If Maruki had had to put all of Akechi’s memories into Goro, then that most likely meant that he would have seen all of them and known whether Akechi was alive or not. Goro had said there was a gap in Akechi’s memory between the time of the engine room and Christmas Eve, so anything could have happened during that time, but Akira is slowly starting to lose hope that anything good happened during that time. 

“Let me give you some advice,” Maruki must have looked back and seen the pale, depressed look on Akira’s face, “Even if you can’t reach your dreams in the way you thought you would, keep reaching for them. Who knows, you may reach them some day in a better way than you could have ever hoped for.”

As if on cue, they stopped in front of the train station. 

Akria didn’t really know what to say after all of that, but somehow, he felt like after all of that, he understood Maruki a lot better. 

“Maybe we’ll run into each other again someday,” Maruki said as Akira was getting his bags out of the car, “You never know what the world has planned for you.” 

“I like to believe that we’ll meet again some day. Thanks for everything.” Akira said with a genuine smile on his face. 

With that, Maruki drove off, and his friends replaced him almost immediately. 

They all gave their own words of farewell and encouragement before they too were driving off. 

He ran into Sumire briefly, and she thanked him for all of the help that he had given her. Akira also wished her good luck with Futaba to which the gymnast’s face reddened to match the shade of her hair. Morgana (Akira had forgotten that the cat was in his bag) popped out to remind Akira to actually get on his train on time, so Akira continued to the platform. 

Akira got on the train, and he sat down by the window. He placed Morgana on the middle seat, and Akira turned to look out the window of the train while the cat got comfortable. 

He hasn’t given up faith on finding Akechi yet, Akira decides as he stares out the window. It might take awhile, or it might not happen, but Akira plans on finding Akechi and tackling the other when he finds him for a number of reasons. 

His phone buzzes with some notification from the group chat, but Akira doesn’t pay it much mind as he keeps looking out the window to see a person wearing a tan overcoat walk by. Huh, he kinda looked like-

Akira immediately stands up and starts running for the train doors.

He heard Morgana call his name, but Akira could care less right now. 

‘ _ That was Akechi, right? It had to be him!’  _ Akira thought to himself as he was rushing to the doors hoping that they wouldn’t close before he got there. 

He made it in time, and he leapt off of the train and right in front of the group of three people. 

“Akira?” he heard a familiar voice ask.

Even though Akira was out of breath from his short sprint, he jumped and hug tackled Akechi to the ground (which was really a bad move considering that the concrete of the station platform was quite hard; he’ll apologize to Akechi later, he’s too overjoyed right now to care).

“Akechi!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gahh sorry for the kind of late update, but I promise I’ll post the last chapter by either Monday or Tuesdayish :)
> 
> also sorry to the Sumire fans out there but yeah I realized as I was writing this I ended up writing myself into a bit of a corner with her undergoing literally no development in this fic, but then also being fine at the meetup. I kinda just reasoned that if all of Maruki’s reality stuff went away then she would just be Sumire again, and I just kinda said the rest of the thieves helped her through her issues while Akira was in jail and stuff, so that’s the explanation you get.
> 
> (if you have more questions or just other things feel free to ask)
> 
> fun fact about this chapter: I was actually going to have this be an Akechi POV and it was going to be a mystery whether Akria lived or not, but then I realized it would be better if I stuck with Akira’s POV 
> 
> I was also considering the possibility of having Akira remain dead (especially after I wrote that movie bit in the last chapter) while Akechi lives, but then I also remembered that I like happy endings (for the most part), so here we are with both of the boys alive!
> 
> Apologies for the longer than normal end notes, but I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :D


	9. Respite and Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moments passed, and Akira still had Akechi pinned to the ground with how he had hugged and tackled the other.
> 
> He could feel Akechi breathing beneath him. Akechi was here, and more importantly, Akechi was alive. 
> 
> “Akira,” he felt Akechi move beneath him as the other spoke, “could you please move? People are going to start staring.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaa I’m sorry that this is later than I originally said, but I tried to make up for it with the longer than normal chapter (and it’s the last one so...)
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

Moments passed, and Akira still had Akechi pinned to the ground with how he had hugged and tackled the other.

He could feel Akechi breathing beneath him. Akechi was here, and more importantly, Akechi was alive. 

“Akira,” he felt Akechi move beneath him as the other spoke, “could you please move? People are going to start staring.”

“Promise you aren’t going to disappear again?”

“Of course I won’t.” 

Akira slowly moved himself off of Akechi just as the train was leaving the station. He offered his hand to help Akechi up, and he was pleased when the other took it. Akechi fully stood up, and Akira realized something. 

“I accidentally ditched Mona on that train…”

Akechi gave him an unamused look, “You ran off of that train without a second thought? You haven’t changed a bit.”

Akira let out a small laugh, “You don’t seem that different either,” it hit Akira that he wasn’t even sure how much of Maruki’s reality Akechi remembered. His friends hadn’t remembered any of it, so did Akechi not remember anything either, “Do you remember anything that happened with Maruki.

For a fraction of a second, Akira saw Akechi’s body tense up, but the other smoothed over a second later. 

“I do, but…” Akechi trailed off as he got lost in his own head for a bit, but he picked up his original thought soon enough, “we should talk about all of this somewhere else.”

Akira could agree with that. There were still quite a few people around the train station even though one of the trains had just departed (he would have to sincerely apologize to Morgana about leaving him on the train later). 

Akechi took them both to a secluded, nearby cafe. It wouldn’t be up to LeBlanc’s quality, but Akira decided to order a coffee while Akechi got a simple green tea. 

“So,” Akira spoke up after they had both gotten their drinks, “what do you remember?”

Akechi looked apprehensive about answering, and briefly, Akira was brought back to the moment with Goro outside of Maruki’s palace. 

“I remember what I assume to be the first half of Maruki’s reality.” Akechi answered, taking Akira out of his small moment of reminiscing. 

“You mean you only remember his reality up to when we were going to recuse Sumire?” Akira said, filling in the gaps for himself. 

“Yes, I recall going back to Maruki’s palace to try and find Yoshizawa, but then...we got ambushed, and I’m sure you remember what happened to you after that.”

Right...Akechi had killed him. 

“Um,” Akira tried to gloss over the touchy subject the best he could; it wasn’t like it really mattered now since they were both here and alive, “what did you do after...that?”

“Really?” Akechi gave him a questioning look. 

Akira didn’t know what the other was trying to get at, so he let the confusion show on his face for a sign for Akechi to continue.

“You really don’t hate me for killing you? For all of what I put you through with taking Maruki’s deal, you don’t seem like you despise me, and I can’t fathom why.”

“Well if I didn’t hate you for the first three times you tried to kill me, I don’t think I’ll hate you after the fourth,” Akira responded, trying (and miserably failing) to lighten the mood, “And, I’m sure you had good reason for taking Maruki’s deal, even though it was hard for me, I’m sure you knew what you were doing.”

He looked up from his coffee, and he saw a small surprised expression on Akechi’s face. It was a rare moment where Akechi didn’t try to completely mask what he was feeling. 

“That’s just like you; you think better of others while you think you’re expendable,” Akechi seemed to say more to himself than Akira, but he then turned his attention back to Akira, “You are right in assuming that I had a better reasons for taking Maruki’s offer.”

Akechi, oddly, didn’t elaborate beyond that; time for Akira to push for an answer for once. 

“So, what were those reasons?”

The green tea in front of Akechi must have been worlds more interesting to the other rather than answering Akira’s question. 

“Fine, be stubborn, and we won’t get anywhere.”

Akechi seemed to take this as a win for himself because he immediately rebounded and asked Akira a question.

“What happened in Maruki’s reality? As you saw, I wasn’t around for it, so I’m curious as to what happened.”

Akira laughed to himself a little, “Well, you were there, but it wasn’t you. The other you, Goro, gave me quite a headache.” Akira finishes off fondly as he remembers the ring on his finger and begins to run his fingers over its metal surface. 

“You called the ‘other me’ Goro?”

“I mean, I always call you Akechi, and it started to get confusing once I started to get my memories back, so we decided to call him Goro and you Akechi.”

Akira thinks he sees something akin to anger light up in Akechi’s eye, but it’s gone before he could pinpoint what it was directly.

“Why was he there with you in the first place? What did he do to you?” Akechi quickly fired off questions aimed at Akira. 

“You make it sound like he did something bad to me.”

“Well, I don't know who he was or what he was. From what you’ve told me so far, it sounds like Maruki created him, or something along those lines.”

Akira sighed; this was going to take a bit to explain. 

“You should already know part of the reason why he was with me in Maruki’s reality,” Akira started explaining, “You wanted to be dead in that reality, and, um, according to Goro...you were my wish. You know how Ryuji wanted to be back with the track team, or how Makoto wanted her father to be alive again? Apparently, it was the same for me to you.”

Akira clenches both of his hands in his lap to ground himself before he continues, “I-I was so lost after what had happened in that damn engine room. If I had just been a little faster, or if I had reacted a little quicker, I always thought I could have saved you from you. Maruki must have known about that, and when he took over reality, he must have changed what happened in the engine room.”

“But he was clearly wrong,” Akechi spoke up after Akira was done, “I’m here now alive and breathing, so, Maruki clearly doesn’t know everything about what our circumstances were.”

Akira thought about it a bit more, and something didn’t quite line up, “Goro told me about you being my wish, I never once heard Maruki talk about it.”

It didn’t seem like something Goro would lie about either. If Goro’s purpose was to make Akira happy (Akira hated to think about it that way), then it didn’t make sense for him to tell Akira a lie that would cause Akira distress. 

“You said that...Goro was created, in a sense, by Maruki.”

Akira nods to give Akechi confirmation. 

“If you don’t mind telling me,” Akechi said with a look that said that he had already figured this out even though he had less information than Akira had, “how was Goro made to replicate me?”

He had to think about it a bit in order to give Akechi a clear answer, “According to Goro, he was given your memories by Maruki, and he was told to make sure that I was happy, and to also make sure that I didn’t remember the old reality.”

“So from what you’re telling me, it sounds like he didn’t have any free will of his own. Sure, my memories got pushed onto him, but it also seems like Maruki’s thoughts and ideology were a part of him as well. That would make sense why he thought that I was your wish.”

That’s wrong. Maybe Akechi had a point about some of Maruki’s own thoughts influencing what Goro thought, but Goro had free will. 

“Goro helped me escape from Maruki’s reality,” Akira argued back to Akechi, “If what you’re saying is true, then he wouldn’t have helped me, but he held Maruki back while I ran away with his treasure. Fine, Maruki might have influenced some of his thinking, and yeah, it might not have always been right, but Goro still had free will.”

Akechi lightly scoffed at him, “Well, I suppose you knew him better than I did, though he was me in a sense. Besides, it doesn’t really matter who told you what, what matters is that what they told you was wrong.”

They weren’t wrong about Akechi making Akira happy. Akira’s pretty sure that if Akechi hadn’t somehow lived beyond the engine room that Akechi would have actually been Akria’s wish. He was so distraught after the other was left behind the partition wall. Akira had just wanted to tell Akechi that they had beaten Shido and that he still truly cared for the other even though Akechi most likely thought otherwise. He was so elated when he saw Akechi on Christmas Eve and then immediately crushed when the other decided to turn himself in in place of Akira. Then Maruki happened, and that was a whole different mess of emotions for Akira to unpack at a later date because he’s gone quiet for too long, and Akechi is staring.

“Back to my main question,” Akechi decided to fill the silence with a return to the main point of the conversation, “what happened after Maruki completely took over reality? I already know Goro was a part of it somehow, but you haven’t gone into specifics yet.”

Ah, well, this was about to get kind of awkward. If Akechi wants the specifics, then Akira supposes he has no choice but to give him the specifics. 

“At the start Goro wasn’t there. Maruki was trying to make reality without him, or without you.”

Akechi nodded along to show that he was listening to what Akira was saying. He made sure to watch Akechi for his reaction to what Akira was about to say. 

“That didn’t work. I still remembered you even though the others didn’t, so then after that, Goro came along. He walked into LeBlanc the next morning, and, um, he claimed that you and I, no he and I, had been dating for a whole year and that it was our anniversary.”

To his credit, Akechi seemed to take that news better than Akira was expecting. Akira only saw him get flustered for a few seconds before he recovered; Akira only noticed because he was watching the other closely.

“Then we went on a date to the aquarium, and I think Maruki showed up to take our picture at the end, but I didn’t know it was Maruki at the time. It was… really cute actually; Goro chose the cut out of the zebra jellyfish, which thinking about it now kind of reminds me of Loki, and I chose a starfish. After that, we went to the Underground Mall, and I got him a gift and-”

“I don’t need  _ all  _ the details, Akira. Just the important ones.” Akechi seemed annoyed with his rambling, so Akira decided to summarize a bit more.

“We were heading back to LeBlanc, and I ended up feeling your glove in my pocket. That was the tipping point that led to me remembering the entirety of the old reality. Up to that point, I was only remembering bits and pieces of it through headaches, and Goro had been lying to me to try and make me forget the old reality.”

“So that was how he tried to keep you integrated in the old reality,” Akechi said, verbally connecting the dots, “You didn’t mention the headaches before this, what part did they play?”

“Also a way to try and make me forget the old reality,” Akira explained, “After I confronted Goro about all of this, he explained the rest of it to me to the best of his ability. You pretty much know the rest after that. We stole Maruki’s treasure the next day, and here we both are now.”

Akechi seemed to take a few moments to take all of it in, and Akira went to take a sip of his coffee only to find that it was almost completely full and now cold compared to Akechi’s nearly drained green tea. 

“Was it difficult?” Akechi asked after a few minutes of silence had passed. 

“Which part of it?”

It took Akechi a few more moments to answer, “The fight with Maruki. Did you have a plan, or did you brashly run into his palace and swipe his treasure?”

“I came up with a plan that involved Goro stealing the treasure while I fought Maruki and kept him distracted.”

“But you said earlier that he fought off Maruki while you stole the treasure. Did your plan not go off without a hitch?” 

“Yeah, Goro got caught while running away with the treasure, but he was quick on his feet, and he launched an attack at Maruki while I grabbed the treasure and ran off.”

He doesn’t tell Akechi about how he hesitated at the last moment and waited for Goro, but Goro told him to go and get Akira’s reality back. Akria also doesn’t tell him about the promise ring currently resting on his right hand (which he was still running his fingers over) simply because it felt to personal to share with Akechi (it was a bit odd since they both looked like the same person, but they were both different from each other even though one was built around the other).

“Seems like it all worked out in the end, though. We’re both here and alive, and Maruki’s reality is gone,” Akechi said while standing up and taking the bill in his hand to go pay for both of their drinks, “Congratulations Akira, you are once again the savior of humanity.”

Akira could hear a tiny bit of sarcasm in Akechi’s voice, but he didn’t really have it in himself to bring up that Akechi could have helped him if he had only not wished to be dead in Maruki’s reality. 

It was an odd train of thought to follow. On one hand, a small part of him was annoyed that Akechi took Maruki’s deal (and refused to give his full reasons as to why he did it) and threw Akira into a situation where he was all by himself and fighting for the future of reality. But, he got to meet Goro because of all of that, and Akira’s feelings about him were mixed, but he would always be grateful for what Goro helped him through.

“So,” Akechi spoke up after he had returned, “what will you do now?”

Right, Akria was suppose to be on a train heading for his hometown right now. He didn't have anywhere to go right now.

“Um,” he felt stupid for asking this question in the first place, but it was worth a shot, “could I stay at your place tonight? You already know that I was suppose to head home today, but that clearly didn’t happen, and I’m worn out from having to explain all of the Maruki stuff to you so...”

Akechi sighed in frustration. Yeah, Akira didn’t think that it was going to happen; guess he’ll just have to stay at the train station for the night. Maybe if he’s lucky, he could find a hotel that would take someone who looks like a runaway teen, or he could try calling Sojiro, but he also left his phone on the train so-

“Fine.”

“H-Huh?” Akira was thrown off balance for a second thanks to Akechi’s sudden response. 

“I said fine. You can stay at my place, but only for tonight. Right in the morning, we are going to the train station to find you the first train ticket to your hometown.”

Akira would have hugged the other, but he was a bit afraid that if he did, Akechi would take back what he had just said, and Akira would have to resort to one of the plan B’s.

“T-Thanks.” Akira said simply. 

From the cafe, Akechi led them to a train, and once they got off, Akechi walked the both of them through a few streets and up to his apartment. 

Akechi brought out the keys to open the door while he spoke to Akira, “Don’t look around too much. I haven’t been in it in awhile, but there shouldn’t be much to look at in the first place; I live quite modestly.”

After he finished talking, Akechi managed to get the door open, and Akira saw that Akechi’s description of his own apartment was pretty spot on. 

There wasn’t anything around that could be called personalization. There weren’t any pictures on the wall or trinkets anywhere. The only thing that came close to adding personality to the room were the few magazines and newspapers splayed about on the coffee table in front of Akechi’s modestly sized TV. 

“It’s very...you.” Akira decided on.

“I thought you’d say something like that.” Akechi responded. 

Akira didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he decided to change the topic altogether. 

“Do you have a chess set or something besides the TV for entertainment?”

“As a matter of fact,” Akechi said as he moved into the other room, which Akira assumed to be his bedroom, “I do have a chess set,” he said as he showed off the set in his hand. 

They cleared off the small coffee table, and they played two rounds of chess (Akechi won both rounds, but Akira got close to winning the second round) before Akechi revealed that the chess board also doubled as a backgammon board if it was flipped over. They only played one round since it was getting late, and Akira managed to win, but Akechi kept saying that backgammon was really just a game of luck and Akria didn’t actually beat him. Akira still took pride in the victory. 

“I’ll go grab some spare blankets and sheets from my room,” Akechi said as Akira was packing up the board games, “I’ll also get you a spare shirt and pants of mine to sleep in since I’m assuming you don’t want to wear that to sleep and wear it tomorrow as well.”

“Thanks, do you have any movies or anything you’d want to watch? It’s still quite a bit before Mona normally makes me go to bed.”

Akechi laughs a bit from the other room, “Your cat dictated your sleep schedule? How pathetic.” 

Akira laughs back in response, “You say that, but without him I would have been out all night and powered by coffee for the rest of the day until the cycle would have repeated.”

Akechi comes back out soon after with one arm full of blankets and the other carrying a shirt and sweatpants. He had also changed into nightwear while he was in his bedroom, and Akira was taken aback by how different Akechi looked in casual clothes. Akechi was simply wearing a hoodie and what looked to be a thinner pair of sweatpants, but it was such a welcome contrast to the formal clothing that the other always wore, and Akira started to feel his face heat up a little bit as he realized the intimacy of the whole situation. 

“You can go and change in there,” Akechi said while pointing to his bedroom and handing Akira the spare set of clothes, “I’ll set up the sheets and choose a movie while you do that.”

Akira went into Akechi’s bedroom, and while he was changing, he noticed that it was decorated to the same extent the rest of the apartment was. Akechi did have a big bed, but that was about the only thing of note in the room. 

After he was done changing and had folded his clothes for tomorrow into a small pile, he went back to Akechi’s small living room to see that he had arranged the mass of blankets into something that looked very comfortable, and he had selected a movie. Actually, it looked like a recording of a trivia TV program, but Akira had no idea which one it could be.

He sat down next to Akechi on the couch, and they both got the blankets arranged before Akechi started the show. 

Every now and then, Akechi would chime in with the answer when he knew it; he would also quietly mock the contestants who got easy questions wrong or the ones who didn’t buzz in in time. Akira found it quite endearing.

Eventually, Akira’s previous tiredness returned to him, and he started to doze off. Akechi either didn’t notice or didn’t care, but at some point, Akira nodded off too much and ended up falling asleep on Akechi’s shoulder. 

Akira felt Akechi move to be in front of him, and Akira soon found himself (and the blankets wrapped around him) being carried bridal style to Akechi’s bed. It took Akira’s brain too long to catch up to what was happening before he finally questioned the situation. 

“W-What are you doing?”

“What kind of host would I be if I made you sleep on the couch,” Akechi responded as he set Akira down on the bed, “Besides, you’ll need your rest for tomorrow.”

“Good night, Akira.” Akechi turned to walk away, but Akira was quick enough to grab the sleeve of his hoodie before he could get too far away.

“Sleep with me.” Akira said before he could realize his poor choice of wording. 

“I-I mean sleep in here with me!” Akira could feel his face heating up for the second time in one night, “Your bed is big enough for the both of us, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t.”

Akechi seemed to hesitate a bit before he responded, “...Alright.” 

Neither of them could see it, but Akira had a wide smile on his face as Akechi moved around and into the bed with him. 

The bed wasn’t so small that they were forced to have contact with each other no matter what position they moved into, but it was small enough that Akira could always feel Akechi’s body heat right next to him. It felt nice, and it was comforting and soothing to Akira to have a constant reminder that Akechi was right there next to him.

“I never told you why I took Maruki’s deal, did I?” Akechi’s back was facing him as he spoke. 

Akira (through his tiredness) was surprised that Akechi was actually going to tell him, especially considering how the other had blatantly avoided the topic earlier. 

“I’m sure you already knew one reason I took it was because you had died. I knew for certain that Maruki would bring you back to life if I agreed to his reality, but I also took a gamble when I made the deal.”

Akira was listening intently, and Akechi turned around to face Akria. 

“I knew that I couldn’t defeat Maruki by myself, but...I believed that you could.” 

Akira involuntarily gasped after Akechi finished what he was saying

He almost couldn’t believe the risky act from Akechi, but at the same time, Akira was touched by the show of trust or at the very least belief that Akira could do something that Akechi couldn’t do alone. 

“I’m...sorry that I put you through all of that not even knowing whether or not you would be able to get the old reality back. I-I didn’t even know if you would stay dead once you got our reality back, but in my eyes, it was better to take the deal and for you to fail and be alive than not take it and you remain dead no matter what happened.”

Akira moved closer to run a comforting arm over Akechi’s side. 

It had been a risk on Akechi’s part to take the deal in the first place and demanded to Maruki that he remain dead, but now that Akira thinks about it a bit more, they didn’t really have many other options did they. 

Akira’s friends weren’t going to show up, and as great as a fighter that Akechi is, Akira doesn’t think that he could have gotten Sumire back and beaten Maruki all by himself, and even after it all, Akira still would have been dead.

Akira being dead was Akechi’s worst case scenario. 

The realization hit Akira, and he empathized with Akechi. Akira’s worst case scenario had been having to return to a reality that didn’t have Akechi in it, and Akechi’s worst case scenario seemed to be having a reality that didn’t have Akira in it.

He moved closer, and he fully embraced Akechi. Akechi didn’t make any moves to pull back or resist the sudden affection, and after a couple minutes of silence, he brought his arms around Akira to return the hug. 

“We did it though.” Akira said after a while of the two of them simply laying in each other’s warmth and presence. 

He could feel Akechi let out a breathy laugh, “I wouldn’t say I helped much, but to use your words, yes Akira, we did do it.”

Akira tightened his hold on Akechi as he cuddled in closer to the other. He felt Akechi’s hand move to his head and slowly work its way through Akira’s hair; Akira relaxed into the touch. 

He could feel his eyes grow heavier as he finally started to drift into a comfortable sleep. Akira could feel Akechi’s breathing level out as well as they both fell asleep knowing that they were both going to be by each other's sides for a long time no matter what reality would try and throw at them next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it!
> 
> Apologies for if it seems very OOC for Akechi at the end with everything he did, but I do like to write soft Akechi a lot so sorry not sorry
> 
> I’ll go through the chapters at some point and correct grammar and what not and also possibly change all of the Goros in the first chapter to Akechis just to make the whole fic flow better. I know I’m great at planning ahead ;)
> 
> To anyone who cares or is curious, I currently have another Akeshu one shot as a WIP and also a Sumitaba WIP because honestly it’s a great ship, so those are gonna be my next few updates whenever I feel like finishing them :)
> 
> Finally, thanks to literally everyone who read this whole thing; it’s my first multi chapter, so I’m super it’s very rough in some spots, but thanks for sticking with it :D <3!!


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